Doctors Decide Against Transplant For Woman

For Jackie Tomson, help has come too late.

Doctors said Thursday that the 26-year-old Spokane woman’s degenerative brain disease is too advanced and the procedure too risky for her to benefit from an experimental bone marrow transplant.

“This was our last hope,” said her mother, Martha Tomson.

A panel of 38 doctors, through the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, agreed that a transplant would speed Jackie’s deterioration and risk her life.

After a decade of behavioral, learning and memory problems, Tomson was diagnosed with metachromatic leukodystrophy in June. The rare, inherited disease attacks the white matter of the central nervous system and has already destroyed part of Jackie’s brain. A transplant would not reverse the disease, but may have stopped its destruction.

“Maybe five years down the road, they’ll have something more but until research finds something, we wait,” said Martha.

Jackie will return to Spokane under the care of a Spokane neurologist and geneticist who may be able to help her cope with the slow onslaught of the disease.

She’s been waiting in Seattle since Sept. 19. Her retired parents, both 68, have spent the last decade and much of their savings trying to help their youngest child.

Since the family went public in an IN Life on Sunday, members of Assumption Parish, neighbors and friends have responded with help.

One friend wrote her dad, Chuck Tomson, a check for $1,500. A neighbor set up a trust fund at Washington Mutual Bank in Jackie Tomson’s name.

“They’re such nice people and we think Jackie is a doll,” said neighbor Leslie Edison.

Now the Tomsons are heading home.

“We just go on from here,” said Martha Tomson, “and hope for the best.”

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