Update on Tali Trager
Young woman’s battle inspires many to register with Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation
By Stacey Dresner
WEST HARTFORD -- Tali Trager, the young woman whose battle with leukemia inspired many members of the Jewish community to register with the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation earlier this fall, last week underwent the transplant that she and her loved ones hope will save her life.
Trager had the transplant on Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving, at Dana Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in Boston.
On the day of the transplant, Tali was surrounded by her husband, Kevin, her mother Nava Zeevi, her brother, Dr. Meer Zeevi, a neurologist at Hartford Hospital, Rabbi Carol Glass, a chaplain at the hospital and a native of West Hartford, and Dr. Richard Freund, director of the Greenberg Center at the University of Hartford and himself the recipient of a lifesaving stem call transplant more than a year ago. Freund happened to be at the hospital that day to give a talk to nurses on how they can help support patients going through bone marrow transplants.
“We were all together and we all said some prayers,” Kevin told the Ledger in an interview one week after the transplant. “While the transfusion was taking place, the rabbi had her hands on Tali, doing Reiki, and giving her positive energy. It was a real positive experience and it gave us a lot of hope.”
Tali will remain in the hospital for the three weeks following the transplant while the stem cells take hold and to recuperate and gain strength.
But the first week after the transplant was rough for Tali, Kevin said. Five days before the transplant she was treated with high doses of radiation and chemotherapy to destroy her blood cells in preparation for the new stem cells from her donor to be infused into her blood stream.
“The build up of all of the chemotherapy and radiation is taking its toll, but her vital signs are good,” Kevin explained.
But by last weekend, Tali’s cell counts had shown a “slight increase.”
“This is the first positive sign that the new cells are doing their thing,” Kevin announced in an email that went out to the community. “We hope that her cell counts will continue to increase over the next week and that she will experience minimal side effects. If things continue to go well, Tali will be coming home in a week or two. When Tali comes home, for the first two to three months, she will be on strict home arrest. We will have to be very careful and visitors will have to feel 100 percent and wear masks and gloves,” so as not to infect Tali during such a critical time.
Subhead: Outpouring of support
Kevin and Tali were supposed to be married Labor Day weekend in a large wedding ceremony with 250 guests. But in August, it was discovered that Tali, who had battled leukemia in 2003, had again been struck by the serious blood disease.
The couple was then married in a quiet ceremony at the Emanuel Synagogue and instead of going on her honeymoon, Tali underwent chemotherapy in preparation for the transplant.
After hearing Tali’s story, an outpouring of support came from the Jewish community, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and the UJA/Federation of Westport-Weston-Wilton-Norwalk and synagogues in those areas, which held blood donor testing drives to try to find Tali a match within the population of Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews like Tali.
Even JDATE, the dating network through which Tali and Kevin met almost two years ago got involved, emailing its 600,000 clients asking them to register on the Gift of Life registry of Jewish bone marrow donors.
In the end, two matches were found for Tali through the Gift of Life -- one in the U.S. and one in Israel.
Tali’s doctors chose the Israeli donor for medical reasons, and the donation was shipped to the U.S. last week and the stem cells were infused into Tali.
While the local donor drives did not result in a donor for Tali, the Tragers are happy that the drives have increased awareness about the need for bone marrow donors.
And another patient suffering from an illness may end up benefiting from the drives -- a donor from the drive at Beth David Synagogue in West HArtford has been asked to go through testing to see if he is a match for another person in need of a transplant.
As Tali, Kevin and their families wait for good news about Tali’s transplant, they marvel at the response they have gotten from the community.
“My sister and her group of friends from West Hartford were instrumental in getting the initial drive going and getting the Federation and the Jewish community involved,” Kevin said. “The support we received was incredible and it is a tribute to our community.”
A bone marrow drive to increase the number of Jewish people on the Gift of Life Bone Marrow registry will be held on Sunday, Dec. 18 from 9 a.m. n 1 p.m. at Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation - Emek Shalom, 55 Bushy Hill Road, Simsbury. The organizers ask that you call to sign up so that enough testing kits are on hand at the drive. To sign up or for more information about the drive, call Betsy Richards at (860) 231-6435 or email ARH1115@aol.com.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford is still accepting donations to pay for ongoing bone marrow testing. Contact Jewishhartford.org for more information.