Mandi Schwartz, who is suffering from leukemia, received cord blood stem cells on Wednesday that her medical team hopes would improve her chances in beating the condition.
The 22-year old Yale hockey player was transfused with umbilical cord blood given by two donors, and the procedure went smoothly at the transplant unit of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance at the University of Washington Medical Center, according to a spokesman for the group.
4fb4770cb1c40 has been battling leukemia since her diagnosis two years ago. She went into remission twice during that time but her cancer came back last month.
She is expected to remain hospitalized for about one month after receiving the cord blood stem cells, during which time her white blood cell count would return to a safe level, according to Dr. Colleen Delaney, director of the Cord Blood Transplant Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The center is one of three groups who founded the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, a non-profit cancer treatment facility located near downtown Seattle.
