6-year-old girl saves brother's life by donating bone marrow from her hip

England - Doctors revealed the baby needed an urgent bone marrow transplant as he was at risk of dying.

A six-year-old girl bravely came forward to donate bone marrow to her baby brother and saved his life. Sophia Ashby, from Barwell, Leicestershire, demanded her worried parents to let her be a donor and told them: 'If I give Caleb my bones he will live'.
Four months old now Caleb was born with a heart defect and underwent major surgery soon after his birth. However, doctors later revealed the baby needed an urgent bone marrow transplant as he was at risk of dying even by a common cold due to shortage of infection-fighting blood cells in him, reported Mirror.co.uk.
Sophia who was a 100 per cent match, had her bone marrow extracted from her hip which was donated to her baby brother. Proud parents Kelsey Stynes, 28, and Lee Ashby, 31, said their daughter 'smiled and was happy' when the family found out her bone marrow was a perfect match.
But after the transplant, the family had to wait for two weeks to find out if Caleb's body had accepted his sister's bone marrow. Fortunately, four weeks on, four-month-old Caleb is set to make a full recovery.
Sophia's mother Kelsey, a beautician said, "It makes me so emotional just thinking about it. I am completely overwhelmed by it all. She has been fantastic for the whole way through this. She has done a good thing but I'm not sure if she knows how amazing she is." The mother who has two other sons Zachary, one, and Tyler, eight, found out Caleb was going to be born with a heart defect when she was 22 weeks pregnant.
When Caleb was two-weeks-old he underwent a major eight-hour operation to insert a plastic stent into his heart. But doctors soon realised the newborn's wound was not healing and tests revealed he had "no white blood cells at all" meaning he was at serious risk of infection.
"If she (Sohpia) didn't want to go ahead with it then we wouldn't have Caleb here with us now. I had mixed emotions. Sophia was so willing but I didn't want to put Sophia through it if she didn't want to. But she said 'I want to help'. She said 'if I give Caleb my bone he will live'," said Sophia's mother.
The bone marrow transplant was successful and both the children are recovering well. "It was very touch and go at that point. We thought we had been through the worst after his operation," the mother said, adding that the brother-sister now adore each other. "Sophia is amazing with him and they are the best of friends. They are closer than ever now. Sophia knows she has done an amazing thing," she added.