News

Appleton native battles leukemia

By Sam Lucero
Compass Staff

Become a bone marrow donor To assist the Salm family and become a volunteer donor, contact the Community Blood Center of Appleton, (920) 738-3131 or (800) 280-4102. To make a tax-deductible donation to help pay for examinations on behalf of Peter Salm, send a check payable to Community Blood Center, 4406 W. Spencer St., Appleton, WI 54914. To learn more about the National Marrow Donor Program, visit their Web site, www.marrow.org.

GREEN BAY -- As a lieutenant commander in the Navy, Roman Peter Salm III, has faced many challenges. His biggest challenge, however, is the battle he now faces with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML).

Salm, 33, who goes by his middle name, is a 1992 graduate of Appleton West High School. He is currently a patient at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, where he awaits a bone marrow donation. The urgent need for bone marrow donors has spurred Peter Salm's family in Appleton to help recruit donors and to increase awareness of bone marrow donation.

Virginia and Roman "Junior" Salm II, members of St. Edward Parish in Mackville, are working with The Community Blood Center in Appleton to find a bone marrow donor for their son. "He's in a tough situation, but we're not giving up," said Junior Salm in an interview with The Compass Feb. 6.

According to the elder Salm, his son has been stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii for two years. After receiving a vaccination for yellow fever in November, he came up with what he thought was an allergic reaction to the injection. On Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving, Salm visited a doctor to determine the problem.

After taking blood tests, Salm was told he needed to enter the hospital immediately for additional tests.

On Saturday, Nov. 24, he flew to Milwaukee and entered Froedtert Hospital, where further tests revealed he had leukemia.

"He's been there ever since," said his father. "He's gone through three sets of chemotherapy. They do have it in remission. Now, every three or four weeks, they give him chemotherapy to keep it in remission - until we can find a donor."

AML is a cancer of the white blood cells. It is characterized by the rapid proliferation of immature blood cells, which makes the bone marrow unable to produce healthy blood cells.

Leukemia treatment requires aggressive chemotherapy and/or radiation to kill the cancerous cells. But the therapy also destroys the bone marrow. Transplanted bone marrow allows leukemia patients to grow healthy new immune systems.

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, 30,000 U.S. children and adults are diagnosed with diseases for which blood or bone marrow transplants are needed. Only 30 percent have a matched donor in their families.

Peter Salm has no matching donor in his family. Without one, Salm will not survive.

Joining the Salms in their campaign is Fr. Richard Mauthe, a retired priest of the Green Bay Diocese. Not only is Fr. Mauthe a friend of the family, he baptized Peter Salm in 1974 and is his godfather.

Fr. Mauthe and his godson have one other thing in common: both men were adopted. It's a connection that has helped them form a special bond, one made stronger after Peter Salm and his wife of seven years, Michelle, adopted two siblings, Zapporah, 6, and Samuel, 5, three years ago.

Fr. Mauthe visited his godson at Froedtert Hospital in January and gave him the sacrament of anointing.

With the assistance of The Community Blood Center, Junior Salm is recruiting volunteers, particularly young adults, to join the National Marrow Donor Program Registry. The Salms have donated $5,000 to the blood center to help pay registration and exam costs.

"Right now (the registration and exam fees) are free," he said. "If you want to make a $25 donation, you can." The cost is usually $52.

Volunteers are given a simple mouth swab. This will determine if a donor match exists. Each registration and exam takes about 25 minutes, said Cheryl Shumaker, coordinator of the NMDP program at the Appleton blood center.

When a donor match is found and consent is given, the donor undergoes one of two procedures, said Shumaker. These include a PBSC donation, where blood-forming cells found in the marrow are harvested in a procedure similar to donating platelets at a blood bank. The other procedure is marrow donation, which is a surgical procedure requiring anesthesia.

Both procedures involve a minimal amount of pain and inconvenience, but they save lives, said Shumaker.

The national bone marrow registry now has more than 5 million donors listed, but no matches are available for Salm.

Junior Salm would like to see college students take up the cause for bone marrow donations. He is praying that his son will find a donor match.

"He knows it's in the Lord's hands," said Salm, who spends most of his waking hours thinking about his son. "It's a tough one. You wake up at 1 a.m. and it's on your mind."