Katherine Hammons, a resident of Belleville, and a senior nursing student at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, is a recipient of the Matthew S. Debono Scholarship to assist her during her last semester.
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The scholarship targets students in post-high school educational endeavors who have received bone marrow or stem cell transplants. Ms. Hammons and her doctor, Richard K. Burt, made history several years ago when Hammons was treated with stem cells from her own bone marrow for systemic lupus which had caused two strokes and subsequent brain damage. Her recovery has exceeded all expectations and Hammons herself says that she is "reborn."
She remembers, with gratitude, that many of the citizens of Belleville made financial contributions to help fund her transplant.
A participant in the GENESIS project at the U of Michigan, she has demonstrated her ability not only to complete her course work with enthusiasm and disciplined scholarship, but also to pursue classes in nursing research and cultural aspects of health and illness. As a more mature student, she has been able to incorporate her life experience into her pursuits, which are calculated to be of utmost service to her future patients. This coming semester, she is enrolled in a clinical course for hematology-oncology involving bone marrow transplant care and will rotate through the pediatric bone marrow stem cell unit at the U of M Mott's Children's Hospital. The aim of the GENESIS Phase II (Gaining Excellence in Nursing Education: Students Intensifying Scholarship) is to enrich academic experiences for underrepresented students in many categories.
The Matthew Debono Scholarship, out of Indianapolis, Indiana, memorializes a young man, who though never a transplant recipient himself, recognized the rigors of the procedure and wished to offer support to those who were successful in battling their diseases in this manner.
At that time, twenty-two years ago, BMTs were still highly experimental and rare; there was no national registry of potential donors. Today, his disease, Severe Aplastic Anemia, has a much higher cure rate precisely because of the new technologies available.
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