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February 12, 2012

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Father desperately seeking donor for life-saving bone marrow transplant

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Tiffany Brown

Fulgencio Garcia and his family at the American Heritage Academy on on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2009. A bone marrow drive will be held at the school in his honor on Saturday.

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Friday, Jan. 29, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Bone Marrow Drive for the Garcia Family

Fulgencio Garcia and his family at the American Heritage Academy, where a bone marrow drive is being held in his honor on Saturday. Launch slideshow »

American Heritage Academy

If Fulgencio Garcia is in pain, he doesn’t let it show — especially not around his three children.

He still goes to work every day, driving a truck. It’s important, he says, to demonstrate to his sons the value of a hard day’s work.

But he can’t hide from his wife, Rachel.

“In his eyes, I know he’s in so much pain,” she said. “He tries not to let it show, but it’s so hard.”

Fulgencio Garcia suffers from two forms of leukemia, and it seems doubtful he will beat it without a bone marrow transplant.

But the donor pool for Latinos like Garcia is small. That’s why the family is hopeful that a bone marrow donor drive on Saturday will yield results. The American Heritage Academy, where the Garcia children attend school, will host the drive from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Last year, Fulgencio Garcia was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, an aggressive form of leukemia, on top of his existing essential thrombocytosis.

He also has liver problems and an enlarged gall bladder, which can both be traced to complications of leukemia. On top of that, he has an enlarged heart, a problem unrelated to the cancer.

He first was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005, after he went to the hospital with painful lesions on his hands and feet.

The illness manifested itself just a year after his son Sebastian was born in 2004. He married the love of his life, Rachel, in a little white chapel near the Strip in November 2003.

Now, without a transplant, it seems doubtful Fulgencio Garcia will live to see Sebastian or his other children grow up.

Because he is Latino, the family was told the likelihood of finding a match is slim. They were warned not to get their hopes up.

Annette von der Muehlen, a representative for the DKMS bone marrow registry who helped the school set up the drive, said a patient is most likely to find a donor match if they share the same ethnicity.

Unfortunately, Latinos and other minorities are underrepresented in the registry, she said. About 650,000 the 7 million potential donors in the registry are Latino.

Latino patients, have a 45 percent chance of finding a donor, von der Muehlen said.

The Garcias hope about 1,000 people sign up for the registry on Saturday. Potential donors will be asked for some general health information and will have their cheek swabbed to collect a tissue sample.

They are then put into a registry and contacted if they are a match for a patient who needs a transplant.

People ages 18 to 55 who are in good health and don’t have autoimmune disorders or diabetes generally can participate, von der Muehlen said.

Rachel Garcia said she hopes the drive will help other ill people, not just her husband, find bone marrow donors.

“I want him to be able to say, ‘I’m in remission. I’m a survivor,’” she said. “He deserves a second chance at life.”

Rachel Garcia said their oldest son, Antonio, 13, who is Fulgencio Garcia’s stepson, is the only one of their children who understands the extent of their father’s illness.

“It’s hard for him,” she said. “A few weeks ago, he told me he felt like he was losing his best friend.”

Rachel Garcia’s mother, Patricia Wilson, 57, of Las Vegas, said she’s proud of her son-in-law’s strength and the example he sets for his children.

“When you have a daughter, all you want is for her to grow up and marry a good man,” Wilson said, her voice breaking. “He genuinely loves my daughter and his children...He has a real strong sense of providing for his family.”

Although Fulgencio Garcia has health insurance through work, it doesn’t cover all of his medical costs, his wife said.

Every couple of months, he has to undergo a bone marrow biopsy, which costs about $3,000. His medications cost between $500 and $600 a month.

“We are so far in debt, we can’t even see straight,” Rachel Garcia said.

The family pays for school at the American Heritage Academy through a scholarship program.

Rachel Garcia works as a gym teacher and a janitor at the school to make sure she can continue to send her children there.

She said she often worries her husband pushes himself too hard. He returned to work as a truck driver after taking a few months of medical leave, because he felt like he was healthier when he was active and he wanted to show his sons the value of hard work.

Fulgencio Garcia said he wants to make sure he instills values in his children before it’s too late.

“They really need me,” he said. “They need their dad.”

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