MONTREAL – 19 year old Luca Di Tecco was diagnosed with leukemia when he was just 9 years old.
He was saved by an almost unknown operation called a blood cord transplant.
It was taken from a German child of the same age and type of blood.
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Cord blood comes from stem cells that are located in the umbilical cord at birth.
These stem cells and even the umbilical cord can be donated to Héma-Québec where it is stored and refrigerated in a cord bank.
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As of yet, there are no reported risks in the operation.
For now, Quebec is the only province in the country that has a cord bank.
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