Psychological Support of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donation with Sibling Donors: a Case Report

The article concerns our experience of psychological assistance for the sibling donors in the course of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) procedure. We discuss psychological support in a case of a 6-year old girl with acute myeloid leukemia and her donor, a 20-year old brother. We describe our experience of communications between clinical team, medical psychologist, patient’s family, and the potential donor. The psychological assistance resulted into lower distress level observed in the donor of hematopoietic stem cells, as well as higher satisfaction with making the decision and involvement of the whole family into the treatment process. During communications with family members, individual needs of the sibling donor should be considered, with respect to the form and extent of psychological support in the course of donorship.

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