Father gets life-saving stem cell donation from 9-year-old son
By Rina Nakano
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TORRANCE, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A 10-year-old boy from Torrance made history as the youngest stem cell donor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, giving his father a second chance at life.
There’s nothing more that Nick Mondek loves more than being a dad. But in 2022, an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia put the then 45-year-old on his deathbed. “I’m thinking about my sons, and I’m thinking about how I’m not ready to move on yet,” Mondek said.
Thankfully, his older brother Dave was a match. Several rounds of chemotherapy erased Mondek’s cancerous cells and replaced them with his brother’s. By the end of the year, he was able to return to work as an anesthesiologist.
“It was an incredible feeling just to have someone that you’ve idolized your whole life come and save you,” Mondek said.
Unfortunately, remission didn’t last long, and in April this year, Mondek said the cancer came back “ferociously fast.”
With his brother Dave no longer an option as the cancer found a way around his stem cells, Mondek searched for cousins in the National Marrow Donor Program, but no donor match was found.
Desperation got him thinking about a friend with lymphoma who received a donation from his 19-year-old son. Mondek wondered if his own son could do the same for him, “But he’s only 9 and he’s 70 pounds,” he said.
Tests revealed that his older son Stevie, was a 50% match, enough to confuse the current cancer cells and replace them.
“I just told him that we were looking for other donors because I didn’t want him to feel pressured, like this was something he had to do. And I just left it up to him,” Mondek said.
Stevie says he didn’t even hesitate; the answer was obvious. “I wanted to help him get rid of his cancer, and I wasn’t nervous at all,” he said. In July, Stevie made history by becoming the youngest stem cell donor ever at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The transplant was a success, with tests showing that 99% of Mondek’s body is made of Stevie’s healthy cells.
“He donated six million stem cells to save my life, so it’s not just an honor to call him my son, I’m proud to call him my hero,” Mondek said.
For Stevie, the experience has profoundly impacted him. “I want to be a doctor in baseball,” he said.
“He’s great at baseball, and he’s already on his way to becoming a doctor; he already saved one patient,” Mondek said with a beaming smile. “So, he can save more.”
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