Nurse donor

At work she s full of smiles and stories But is also making a difference in her spare time Reporter Amber Schatz introduces us to one of the most bubbly nurses on the block It seems like she was made for her job Kayla Gartner Registered Nurse I call it the talkie-huggie job because I get to talk all day long and give hugs so yah it s not too shabby Hugs can be in high demand on her floor That s because Kayla Gartner primarily cares for cancer patients The coolest part is working with cancer patients and giving them chemotherapy and seeing them stare death in the face if I can do even a teeny tiny bit even a smile some days is worth a million words But she s doing so much more than giving smiles Last summer Kayla signed up for the bone marrow registry program All they did was swab my cheek with like a q-tip put it in an envelope and away it went After blood work and more health tests Kayla quickly found a match I found out it was a 62-year-old man with CLL cancer of the bone and they have to wait for him to do chemotherapy and get his body ready Even though he s a stranger Kayla has had many patients with CLL and says five days of shots and some achiness is a small sacrifice to make especially now so if I can give the opportunity to save a life prolong a life even if he got an extra year out of it that s one extra year he can see his grandkids that s one extra year he can see his daughter get married it s awesome That positive attitude is what makes Kayla s match so lucky to have been matched with her If she could meet him now she knows what she would say Actually I d be like hang in there I know you ve gone through some rough stuff but it ll be okay I guess let go and let God but I d give him a really big hug and then we d probably go on a walk If the transplant goes smoothly she and her match can decide to meet after two years But more than anything Kayla hopes her story encourages others to donate It just makes me happy well and that s why I m a nurse it makes me happy to help people so I think everyone needs to dig down a little deep and just say hey you know what I can help a life and maybe go to D C Amber Schatz KX News Kayla says the new way of making a bone marrow donation is similar to donating plasma and if more people knew how easy it was maybe more would donate Also the trip to Washington D-C is all paid for For more information visit www marrow org