The chance to be a lifesaver

“Teststicks in – be a donor”.

It’s actually as simple as it sounds, reports Jonas Braun. The 25-year-old from Obernzell and employee of PROWIN A+W GmbH in Jahrdorf near Hauzenberg already registered as a potential bone marrow donor a few years ago during a typing campaign – and then actually got the chance to save a person’s life.

“You fit” came the message from AKB, Aktion Knochenmarkspende Bayern as the statewide offshoot of DKMS, at the beginning of this year. After a blood sample was taken by the family doctor and subsequent laboratory evaluation, a preliminary examination was then arranged, which also went smoothly. So nothing stood in the way of a bone marrow donation and for Jonas it was pretty quickly clear “I want to help this person”.

As a sales engineer at PROWIN, Jonas normally works out quotations for special machines worth millions – now it was first a week’s (extra) vacation and putting in the needle himself: In preparation for the donation, he had to inject himself with medication to increase the number of stem cells in his blood.

Usually, this loss of work for the employer is fully reimbursed by AKB – but not so with PROWIN: the company bears the majority of the costs itself by donating the amount to the non-profit organization. Extraordinary commitment of the employees must also be appreciated extraordinarily. And what’s more, every monetary donation to DKMS helps save lives.

“It’s not common for a company to cover the cost of a week’s vacation, on top of the 30 days of annual leave – but in this case, it’s natural for us”

 

Josef Freund,
Commercial Manager A+W Automationstechnik GmbH

For Jonas, this week was not a “vacation” at all.
“The side effects of the donor preparation come as flu-like systoms and you just feel sick” recalls the 25 year old, “but that was also the worst and not worth mentioning compared to what you can achieve with a donation, namely giving a person new hope and possibly saving their life. I would definitely do it again.”

The transplant itself finally took place on February 16 at a clinic near Munich and went smoothly for the donor. Jonas is already eager to learn how the patient is doing in the meantime, but he will have to wait a few more months for that information.