DO Student Becomes Lifesaving Bone Marrow Donor

October 8, 2026

On the final day of her first year of medical school at PCOM Georgia, Kiera Curry (DO '29) had just finished her last exam, when she received an email that would change the course of her life.

The email read that Curry was a match to donate lifesaving bone marrow to a young child.

At first, she thought the message might be spam, but then a representative from NMDP℠ contacted her and confirmed the information was real.

“I obviously wanted to help if I could,” Curry said.

She would have to undergo more testing and bloodwork to solidify her match profile. Two weeks after her bloodwork was processed, Curry got the call that would confirm her decision: She was an 8/8 HLA match for the child in need of the donation.

The donation, once initially expected to take place after a longer waiting period, suddenly became urgent. Within weeks of NMDP's initial contact, Curry traveled to Oklahoma State University Medical Center in Oklahoma City for a pre-surgery physical with the surgeon. Her classmate, Nicole Laurel, also now a second-year Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) student at PCOM Georgia, accompanied Curry to Oklahoma City for her appointment.

“It really wasn't a question at that point,” she said. “It kept feeling like it was supposed to happen, and all these things started to line up that really brought it into focus.”

Just two weeks after her pre-surgery appointment, Curry returned to Oklahoma State University Medical Center where her bone marrow procurement surgery took place. Her bone marrow was then delivered to the recipient within 24 hours.

A little sore and stiff after surgery, it took Curry removing her bandage on her lower back to realize the enormity of the situation.

“It hit me that someone else had my bone marrow,” she said.

The journey to becoming a bone marrow donor began three years earlier, with a simple cheek swab. As a senior at the University of Tennessee, Curry took part in a donor registry drive at a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority meeting through the “Be The Match” program, now known as NMDP.

“It was such a quick thing that happened that day,” she said. “I swabbed my cheek and we went on with our meeting.”

Curry now hopes to encourage others to join the NMDP Registry. She recently participated in a bone marrow donor drive on the Suwanee campus, hosted by the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) club, to invite more students to take the first step toward potentially helping someone in need of a bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant.

NMDP reports that more than 90 percent of the time, doctors request a blood stem cell donation, a non-surgical procedure resembling plasma or platelet donation. In Curry's case, because her recipient was a child, doctors requested liquid marrow, containing these blood-forming stem cells, be retrieved through a surgical procedure performed under anesthesia.

“I couldn't recommend it more. You would never know that doing such a small act, such as swabbing your cheek, could ultimately save someone's life.”

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