Kristen Cameron “KC” Hernandez has a promising career as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse but right now she’s focused on finding a stem cell donor to save her own life.
The 22-year-old graduated from the University of California, Irvine, School of Nursing in June 2022 but four months later was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a blood and bone marrow cancer. Soon after she’d started her nurse residency program, she began feeling tired, itchy, had joint pain, and red dots on her skin, a condition known as petechiae, but she thought it was all because she was adjusting to her new 12-hour shifts.
But when she noticed that her gums started bleeding, her orthodontist examined her, and referred her for bloodwork.
39 days
Hernandez immediately went to urgent care. Her bloodwork, including platelet count and white blood cells, were abnormal. She was admitted to the hospital that day.
She started a chemotherapy infusion regimen called 3+7, which is a combination of two chemo drugs one given continuously and the other for the first three days. The bone marrow biopsy results showed Hernandez has two gene mutations driving her cancer.
“These two mutations are more resistant to chemotherapy, so it’s a little harder to treat them,” she says, noting she spent 39 days in the hospital.
The bone marrow biopsy after the induction chemotherapy showed cancer cells, which meant chemo didn’t get her into remission. As a result, Hernandez joined a clinical trial to treat one of the mutations, which currently doesn’t have an FDA-approved treatment plan. Unfortunately, she didn’t respond to this treatment either and will now have to do a different combination of chemotherapy.
Looking for a donor
Hernandez’s best chance of survival is a stem cell transplant. Her one sister wasn’t a donor match and neither were her cousins. She started working with Be The Match®, a nonprofit organization that connects patients with a matching blood stem cell donor.
She hasn’t found a match yet on the Be The Match Registry®. Finding a match is particularly challenging for Hernandez, whose heritage is Mexican and Filipino. Ethnicity plays a significant role in finding a match. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) markers used to find a match are inherited and some ethnic groups have more complex HLA markers than others. The odds of finding a match are 79% for whites, 48% of Hispanics, and 47% of Asians or Pacific Islanders.
“When you’re mixed [ethnicity], it’s an even a lower chance of finding a donor,” she says.
Hernandez is reaching out to both the Mexican and the Filipino community in search of a donor. That includes having donor drives and doing outreach to students at local colleges throughout California, including San Jose and Los Angeles.
“We’re just really trying to encourage anyone to sign up because even if you’re not a match for me, you could be a match for somebody else,” she says. Getting on the registry is as easy as getting cheek swabbed. If a match is made, that individual potentially can help someone in need. Most stem cell donations are similar to donating plasma, so it isn’t as painful as many might think. Many donors sit and binge watch their favorite TV show while donating.
“A couple hours of your time, gives somebody else a lifetime,” says Hernandez, who loves baking, Disney, the beach and Taylor Swift.
So much to accomplish
Before her diagnosis, Hernandez lived in Irvine with her boyfriend but now she’s living back home with her parents, who are her caregivers.
She has no immune system right now and can’t go out. She will be heading back to the hospital for inpatient treatment, but she is looking forward to receiving her stem cell treatment so she can go to the beach again, go shopping at Target and visit Disneyland.
“I still have so much I want to accomplish in life and getting this transplant would allow me to do it,” says Hernandez, who’s also looking forward to traveling. She’s eager to return to her nursing career too, noting her experience as a patient will make her a more compassionate nurse.
But first, she needs to find a donor.
“When you’re in this situation, your life depends solely on the kindness and selflessness of somebody else,” she says. “But throughout this whole process, I’ve really seen the good in people around the world, I’ve had people reach out to me, who I’ve never even met, who have heard my story and telling me, ‘I’m going to get tested for you. I want to be a match for you.’”
To register as a stem cell donor with Be The Match, go to my.BeTheMatch.org/PlanetKC