Coimbatore’s Masilamani becomes first female bone marrow donor in country

It took a lot of courage for the 26-year-old Masilamani, hailing from a nondescript village of Coimbatore, to come out and donate her bone marrow to save a baby from New Delhi.

Masilamani, the mother of a thalassemia major girl, is ecstatic at what she has achieved recently.

“I believe I am blessed. I managed to break away from the misconceptions of our society to save a child. I feel like I am the mother of the child. I would say it is my child, too, as now I have given him a second chance to live. I pray to the almighty that he must recover fast and should never suffer again. He must be healthy,” Masilamani said.

Masilamani got married at the age of 20 to R Kaviarasan, a fabricator. “Within a year, my daughter was born and a few months later she was diagnosed with thalassemia major. We both (husband and wife) have our swabs to identify human leukocyte antigen (HLA) to check if we could be of any match to our daughter at DATRI -- the blood stem cells donor registry. There I found a match to become a donor for a baby boy.”

Excited but confused, Masilamani shared the piece of information with her husband who agreed that it was a great opportunity to help another parent in distress. “But we could not take a decision so easily. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law resisted saying if something went wrong, who will take care of your children? This confused me,” she said.

Masilamani, after giving birth to a boy three years later, sought expert advice on bone marrow donation. “My doubts were cleared and I was glad to know there are no short-term or long-term side effects. I could finally convince my family and decide to donate bone marrow to save a life,” she said.

Describing bone marrow donation as a simple process without side effects, Masilamani hopes that her act would encourage other women to come forward and follow suit.