GIVE GIRLS VALENTINE'S DAY GIFT OF LIFE.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

If you're looking for someone special to give a Valentine's Day gift to, I've got a couple of little girls I'd like you to consider.

They're both going through some pretty tough times right now, and could use our support. It could help save their lives.

Sabrina Hacker is a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Hale Middle School in Woodland Hills. Emily Buelow is a 7-year-old second-grader at Lupin Hill Elementary School in Calabasas.

Neither girl has been in class much this school year because they and their families have a lot more on their minds than education.

The girls are fighting leukemia, and so far leukemia seems to be winning.

They're in the hospital right now, and could use some fresh troops to help them fight this fatal blood disease that is threatening their young lives.

That's where our Valentines come in. The girls need a big one in red. A little of our blood. Not a lot, just some. We won't even miss it.

For Sabrina, one of the problems she faces right now is cultural, says Armando Hernandez, a recruitment specialist in the marrow donor program for the American Red Cross.

Sabrina's mom is Latina, her father Caucasian. For a possible bone marrow donor to be found, she's going to need a lot of people from the Latino community to step forward and help her as a possible match, Hernandez says.

But, so far, that community has not been much of a help, he said. Of the 4 million people who have given blood for tissue typing in the National Bone Marrow Registry, only 300,000 are Latino, Hernandez says.

``Unfortunately in the Latino community, for whatever cultural reason, they think bone marrow is something you don't give,'' he said. ``They think it's like giving an organ or a piece of your bone, but it's not.

``Bone marrow is blood, only it's thicker and fatter because it's rich in cells, platelets and plasma, all the things Sabrina is going to need to beat leukemia.''

So Hernandez spends his days and many nights visiting schools, churches and Latino community organizations trying to dispel the misconceptions, and get more Latinos out to bone marrow drives to help their own.

``We're just hoping the response will be there for Sabrina's bone marrow registration drive on Valentine's Day,'' he said.

It will take no more than eight to 10 minute to give them this Valentine. Thirty seconds or so to draw out a little blood for testing, and the rest of the time filling out some papers on medical history and background.

Less than 10 minutes for maybe the best Valentine you'll ever give someone. A chance at life.

Sabrina's bone marrow drive will be Feb. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Hale Middle School, 23930 Califa St., Woodland Hills.

For more information, call Valarie Fitch, a parent who is coordinating the drive, at [phone].

Over at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, 7-year-old Emily Buelow sleeps soundly Thursday, unaware her mother, Tracey, sits quietly at her bedside monitoring her little girl's progress.

Tracey has just walked over from her room at the Ronald McDonald house next door to the hospital, where parents can stay overnight if they have too far to drive to go home every night after visiting their kids or the child's too sick for a parent to stay in the room with them.

Emily has been in isolation after a two-hour transfusion of bone marrow a few days ago, and what she needs now are fresh blood platelets that will help control her internal bleeding during the next month or two while her new bone marrow hopefully starts to work.

``All the chemotherapy and radiation treatments she's had not only kill off the bad things, but they kill the good things, too, including platelets which now make her prone to internal bleeding,'' Tracey Buelow said.

Much like the hesitancy Hernandez finds in the Latino community toward testing for a bone marrow match, Kathy Reger, blood donor recruiter for Childrens Hospital, finds resistance when she asks people to give platelets from their blood to help kids fighting leukemia.

It sounds painful, and they just don't know what it means or entails, she said.

``What happens is similar to dialysis,'' Reger said. ``Blood is taken out of a needle placed in one arm, filtered through a machine to remove the platelets, then the blood is returned to the donor through a needle in his other arm,'' Reger said.

``It doesn't hurt, and the whole procedure takes about an hour and 45 minutes,'' she said.

For anyone who wants to give this beautiful little girl a Valentine of precious platelets, call Reger at [phone] to set up an appointment.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Sabrina Hacker

Latino donors being sought

(2) Emily Buelow

Needs blood platelets