Nevertheless,
Maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th:
“Life is a gift. Furthermore, Sonia Sasseville knows it more than anyone. Nevertheless, At the age of 12, she bordered on death. Similarly, Achievement of a serious blood disease, it must undergo, in an emergency, a bone marrow transplant in Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR) hospital. Consequently, A first in Quebec at the time.
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It was 45 years ago. For example, Sonia Sasseville then lived in Montreal-Nord with her parents and three sisters. Therefore, She is passionate about artistic gymnastics.
“I was training. Similarly, I was really weak,” says the 58-year-old woman, sitting in the pretty backyard of her house maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th in Saint-Hubert.
As soon as she knocks on the beam, she develops “bruises bumps”. In addition, His trainer recommends him to consult a doctor.

Photo Martin Chamberland. Similarly, La Presse
The young Sonia when she received her first transplant in 1980
After blood tests, the Dre Yvette Bonny, pediatrician and hematologist in HMR, hospitalized it.
“Its blood formula was completely destroyed,” recalls the retired doctor. For example, Nothing was left: no red blood cells, no white blood cells, no platelets. Furthermore, »»
The teenager is suffering from medullary aplasia. Moreover, maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th Its bone marrow no longer works and it is necessary to carry out a transplant to save it. In addition, One of his three sisters, 8 years old, is compatible. Meanwhile, She gives him stem cells.
I had two weeks to live if they did not graf a grafted.
Sonia Sasseville
The Dre Bonny and his colleague Le Dr Claude Perreault are busy. In addition, Their team is “theoretically ready” to carry out such an intervention. For example, but it does not have a room reserved for this type of transplant or its own budget, indicates the Dre Bonny. However, Whatever, she launches.

Photo Martin Chamberland. La Presse
Newspaper cut after Sonia’s transplant
“I said to Sonia:” Fortunately it was well “, because it was thanks to her that the program developed,” said the Haitian of origin, who received in June the title of commander of the Order of Montreal.
Maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th
Numerous advances
HMR famous in June its 5000e Stage cell transplant – We no longer say bone marrow transplant. because stem cells are now taken from the blood and more rarely in the marrow.
In half a century. many advances were made, observes the Dr Imran Ahmad, director of the hematopoietic stem cell transplant program and HMR cell therapy.

Photo Martin Chamberland. La Presse
The Dr Imran Ahmad, medical director of the program and the clinical transplant research unit & cellular therapy at HMR
“The first transplants that were made was siblings,” he explains. We were testing the compatibility of the brothers and sisters, then we grafted if there was someone compatible. »»
Many patients with acute leukemia, for example, were planned. Donor registers have therefore been created, especially at Héma-Québec.
Then, the analysis of the genetic compatibility of the donor and the receiver was refined, he continues.
Thanks to this as well as to preventive drugs. maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th graft disease against the host has become much less frequent, he says.
When this disease occurs. the new transplanted immune system attacks the patient’s organs, which generates a variety of light to serious symptoms.
“It is a form of rejection upside down, illustrates the hematologist. It is the graft that rejects the patient. And not the patient who rejects the transplanted organ (for example a lung).
Unfortunately, we still have people who die from the graft disease against the host, but much less than before.
The Dr Imran Ahmad, hematologist
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) also causes fewer victims among transplanted patients. This virus “sleeps in the body” and can “reactivate” during recovery.
Drugs now prevent and treat maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th this infection, like others of viral and fungal origin.
Towards more targeted cell therapy
Science continues to progress. For certain lymphomas and acute leukemia refractory to chemotherapy, we are starting to resort to “targeted cell therapy”, he explains.
Rather than changing the entire patient’s immune system as in a stem cell transplant. white blood cells are derived from genetically changing, which is multiplied and reinjects. These cells (car-t) recognize and kill cancer cells.
HMR was the first Canadian center to offer, in 2019, this treatment to adult patients in the country.
The future is probably to make cells like that genetically modified and targeted, but from healthy donors. They could be available in cell libraries.
The Dr Imran maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th Ahmad. hematologist
Patients would no longer have, as at present, to wait “several weeks” before their white blood cells are genetically modified and are transmitted to them. The Dr Ahmad recalls that cancer can progress during this period.
Nurse in HMR
Sonia Sasseville is completely healed. “I started the gym again six months after stopping it. ” said this follower of the march, which is still “the split” at 58 years.

Photo Martin Chamberland. La Presse
Sonia Sasseville
Nevertheless, this transplant has transformed its life. She became a nurse maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th at HMR. “This is what gave me a taste for a career in the field of health,” she says.
Sonia Sasseville met her husband during her studies. The nursing couple – now retired – had two daughters.
Sonia Sasseville has seen the life of another eye since her transplant. “I have easy happiness. I am very focused on the present moment. I appreciate the small business of life. »»
57 066
This is the number of Quebec adult stem cell donors, according to Héma-Québec. They are among the 43 million donors in the International Registry of the World Marrow Donor Association. to which Quebec patients have access.
Simpler for donors
maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th
There are now two ways to donate stem cells. In nine out of ten cases, stem cells are taken from the patient’s blood, indicates the Dr Ahmad. The donor receives subcutaneous injections of a drug for several days that stimulates the bone marrow so that it. releases stem cells in the blood.
Another method: the sampling of stem cells in the bone marrow during surgery under general or epidural anesthesia. The donor is lying on the stomach. The doctor inserts a needle in the lower back to reach the bone of the pelvis. which contains a large amount of bone marrow.
The Dr Ahmad assures that the donation of stem cells is “very safe”. “There are tens of thousands of donors who have been followed for many years in register studies worldwide. [Ces dernières] demonstrate maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th that there is no increase in disease, including cancers. Additionally, »»
However, the donor may have bone pain “which generally last four to five days”. “In general, it’s very tolerable,” says the Dr Ahmad. It goes with a light painkiller. »»
Maisonneuve-rosemont hospital | 1st 5000th
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