Umbilical Cord Transplants helping to save older children's lives

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- Every four minutes, one person in the U.S. is diagnosed with a blood cancer.

Blood Stem Cell Transplants have become a standard way to treat children with Leukemia and other blood disorders, but have been limited for only small children.

Doctors are now saving older children by transplanting not just one but two umbilical cords.

Just last year 15-year-old Sabrina Couillard was fighting for her life.

"I was getting really skinny, said Sabrina. I was getting bruises everywhere."

A doctor diagnosed her with leukemia.

"I just broke down and cried," said Marta Gonzalez, Sabrinas mother.

Her only hope for a cure was a Bone Marrow Transplant but doctors couldn't find a match from a family member.

That's when her doctor, Kamar Godder, a Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist at Miami Childrens Hospital, turned to an alternative stem cell source, the umbilical cord.

Sabrina's doctor gave Sabrina a double umbilical cord transplant.

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Umbilical Cord Transplants helping to save older children's lives