Hmmm. I requested info from both Cryobank and Lifebank over two weeks ago and haven't heard a peep from them (either by mail or by phone).
Hmmm. I requested info from both Cryobank and Lifebank over two weeks ago and haven't heard a peep from them (either by mail or by phone).
Just minutes after posting this, I received an email from LifeBank saying that they have exceeded their need for donations and the donation program is closed for now :( They may re-open by the time I'm due, but now I'm hoping that Cryobank isn't closed to new donations too!
I donated my DD's cord blood back in 2003 with Cryobanks.
It's now March 2007 and I just spoke with the people at Cryobank (www.cryo-intl.com). You can download all the forms online, fill them out, have your doc sign them, and return them to Cryobank by your 35th week. My doc doesn't charge -- I can't imagine! I had a few questions for them, which they answered immediately either via email or telephone. They do both private and public banking, so anyone basically needing a bone marrow transport has access to their public bank.
FYI: There are no local NH hospitals participating in any banks, the Red Cross neither (I tried them first).
HTH! I wish more people knew about cord blood donations!
~Lenore
Thanks for posting this, I wanted to donate so now I can donate too! I just hope they can get enough this time to make a difference for someone, I tried to privately bank with my daughter and for some reason, the collection wasn't enough to bank it at that time.
Jen
Emily 5/19/05
Katie 8/14/07
Chase 10/31/12
Just wanted to update my last post...
Cryobanks recently decided not to accept the donated cord blood of children whose parents have Type 1 Diabetes. I believe they actually said parents with any autoimmune disease, but it's been over a month now & I can't remember EXACTLY what they said.
But I hope that info helps someone out there, anyway.
Good luck!
~Lenore
That's the policy of the National Marrow Donation Program not Cryobanks in particular. The immune cells generated from the cord blood could cause the same disease in a recipient and they can't know yet whether the kid has the disease when you donate.
My impression is they will still take the blood for disease research though. Usually when they use the cord blood for research it's because it is not usable for transplant for some reason. It's reasonable if they sell it because they need to recover the banking costs and as the donor you aren't paying it.
>Just wanted to update my last post...
>
>Cryobanks recently decided not to accept the donated cord
>blood of children whose parents have Type 1 Diabetes. I
>believe they actually said parents with any autoimmune
>disease, but it's been over a month now & I can't remember
>EXACTLY what they said.
>
>But I hope that info helps someone out there, anyway.
>
>Good luck!
>~Lenore