Happy Ending to Story of Pregnant Leukemia Patient

Susie Rabaca, pregnant with twins, finds perfect bone marrow donor match
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 29, 2018 4:01 PM CST
Pregnant With Twins, Leukemia Patient Finds Her 'Miracle'
Senior Clinical Cell Therapy Specialist Megan Raggio prepares stem cells from bone marrow before they are transplanted.   (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

After the story of a woman battling cancer while pregnant with twins made headlines, a record number of people signed up to find out if they could donate bone marrow to her—and now Susie Rabaca has found a perfect match. Rabaca, already a mother of three and due to give birth to her twins Dec. 6, needed a 100% match to treat aggressive acute myeloid leukemia. "For me to find one and for it to be 10 out of 10 at that is amazing. Nothing better in the world right now," the Los Angeles 36-year-old tells 6 ABC. She tells the Daily Breeze it's a "miracle."

Out of 30 million people on the worldwide registry, none was a match for Rabaca until her story went viral. She's part Caucasian and part Latino, making it more difficult to find a full match. Within days of Rabaca's story first airing on TV, more than 50,000 people had signed up on Be the Match. "Only 3% of our registry is mixed ethnicity and so it can really difficult to find a matching donor," says a Be the Match rep. "The fact that we have identified a potential match for her is really exciting." The anonymous donor is still undergoing testing. Rabaca's bone marrow transplant is tentatively planned for Jan. 9. (More on her story here.)

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