Alana plays at the hospital before this week's transplant.
Photo by Alvin Chung, special to the Star-Bulletin

The sound of "Hi, Daddy, ha, ha" filled the 10th-floor hospital room, where Alana had received a bone-marrow transplant five hours earlier, with an overwhelming feeling of relief and thanksgiving.

"She's not speaking Mandarin yet," Stephen Dung said.

It was a humorous reference to the anony

mous, unrelated woman donor in Taiwan and a sign of how relieved and happy the family is.

"God is the only one who can give life," Dung added, "and if He chose her to give life, then she must be a very special person."

Dr. Jean Sanders, director of pediatric marrow transplants at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, brought the marrow back from Taiwan and had it at the hospital by 5:30 p.m. Wednesday (2:30 p.m. in Hawaii).

The marrow needed to rebuild Alana's immune system so her fragile body can defend itself against acute myeloid Type M-7 leukemia was verified and immediately sent up to the girl's hospital room.

At the same time, blood samples collected from the donor were sent to a nearby lab to ensure the half-pint of marrow harvested was from the right person.

The Dungs waited anxiously for more than three hours before confirmation was received.

While waiting, Stephen Dung often stared at the plastic bag containing the marrow which could give his daughter a chance for new life.

"I felt like a kid in a candy store not being able to eat anything," he said.

The infusion of marrow, which is called the "rescue process," began here at 9:35 p.m. Wednesday while Alana was still awake. The transplant was performed intravenously through a catheter implanted in Alana's chest.

"While they were hooking up, she saw the marrow and said 'blood,' " Adelia Dung said. "And then she went to sleep."

Stephen Dung, however, stayed awake, his eyes glued to the marrow bag.

"I waited until the last drop," he said. "The marrow drips into a tube and a pump pushes it through.

"She was getting about 68 mils (milliliters) an hour at first and gradually more," he added. "The transplant took about five hours."

It usually takes two to three weeks for the new graft to begin growing and during this period, Sanders said Alana will likely experience some discomfort, such as mouth sores.

Alana will remain in the hospital for another month to six weeks and will receive outpatient care for another 100 days after that.

"If we're home by November, it'll be a nice Thanksgiving present," Adelia Dung said.

"If not, we'll definitely be back by Christmas."

The transplant was worth the wait, Stephen Dung said.

"I'm still nervous," he added, "because it's not a done deal yet. But I'm happy that we're on the first leg to the real deal."

The family expressed gratitude to the people of Hawaii for their response to the bone-marrow donor drive that registered more than 30,000 people in less than two months.

"We know Alana feels the support and it makes a difference," Adelia Dung said.

"The bone-marrow donor drive found three matches and 200 preliminary matches. We're very thankful for that."

Lori Hubbard, manager of the unrelated (donor) marrow program at Hutchinson Center, can see why the people of Hawaii opened their hearts to this little girl.

"You can see that Alana has had a lot of attention but it hasn't brought out any negative behavior like in some others who have had that kind of attention," Hubbard said.

"There's something special about her and I think even if she didn't have this trouble, Alana would still be the same.

"I'm really glad this day came for her."