Shannon Tavarez, the 11-year-old star of the hit Broadway show, received an umbilical-cord blood transplant this week at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Long Island. Shannon suffers from acute myelogenous leukemia, and the best treatment for her would have been a bone marrow transplant. Last month, the cast members of “The Lion King,” held a bone donor registration drive for her. Unfortunately the search was fruitless, and as of yet a match has not been found.
The team had said that they because were unable to find a perfect bone marrow match for Shannon, an umbilical cord blood transplant would be used. Umbilical cord blood from an anonymous donor will be used; it’s an alternative to bone marrow for treating leukemia.
Dr. Joel Brochstein said in a statement Wednesday that there were no complications during the operation and Shannon was in good health.
September 17th, 2010 at 10:05 am
my son jack is going to be 5 in jan and is donating his hair to the leukemia foundation.the cut will be at the famous ferrazz hair salon in hoboken nj on sept 30th at 9pm.we have the media in place and we are combining our story with shannon’s we are also going to hold a star filled bone marrow drine in her honor ans have been in touch with alina from dkms.we have been trying to reach shannons mother to include her in our efforts.i can be found on facebook under renee compton szablewski and you can leave a message.GOD BLESS YOU SHANNON,YOU ARE A ROCK AND OUR PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU AND ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE THAT SUFFER WITH THIS DISEASE