H eadlines
Blood Continued from Page 1
Scolnick, graduating from high
school this year, the mother
just realized it was time for her
to move on, too.

“When I realized I had been
doing this since she was 3, and
that she was making changes
in her life, I felt it was time
for me to start exploring other
opportunities,” Scolnick said.

For Scolnick, the journey
started in 2003 when her
mother was diagnosed with
multiple myeloma, a blood and
bone marrow cancer.

Before the diagnosis, there
was no foreshadowing. Axelrod
was healthy.

But at her annual physical,
Axelrod’s doctor noticed
something wrong and referred
her to an oncologist, who made
the diagnosis.

For more than a year, though,
Scolnick’s mother was still fine.

From left: Michelle Scolnick and her daughter, Emily Scolnick, at the
Carol H. Axelrod Memorial Blood Drive at The Shipley School in February
2020. 
Courtesy of the Scolnick family
According to Scolnick, her mom
had smoldering myeloma, the
slow-moving, precancerous stage
that doesn’t require treatment.

Every two months, Axelrod
had to visit the doctor to make
sure she was still in that stage,
and Scolnick often went with
her. Her July 2004 checkup was
THINKING ABOUT –
Moving? Moving to Independent
Senior Living?
Selling your home?
S 3 Living
THINK ABOUT –
Strategic Senior Solutions
S 3 Living
or Life Plan Community (CRRC).

S 3 Living represents YOU , not the communities. We will
recommend the best solution to meet your individual needs.

Call the DelawareValley’s leading expert on
Independent Senior Living
David Reibstein, President
215-870-7362 Call today for a free consultation
S3Living.com 10
OCTOBER 21, 2021
as normal as the others.

The doctor did blood work
and asked Axelrod how she
was feeling.

“Fine,” she answered.

Later that day, he called her
to say her kidneys were failing.

Axelrod needed to start treat-
ment immediately.

Over the next few years,
she underwent two stem cell
transplants and a massive dose
of chemotherapy designed to
kill the diseased bone marrow.

Doctors wanted to harvest
Axelrod’s stem cells and then
give them back to her, so they
would multiply cancer-free.

Scolnick’s mother was only
in her late 50s. She wanted to
try what her daughter described
as “the most aggressive treat-
ment option available.” But in
the end, it was her cancer that
proved too aggressive.

“Each treatment would seem
to work, then stop,” Scolnick
said. “Then she’d move on to
something else, that would
seem to work and then stop.”
In July 2007, Axelrod’s nose
started bleeding and wouldn’t
cease, a dangerous situation
for someone being treated for
myeloma, which can cause
blood clots. Axelrod entered
the Lankenau Medical Center
in Wynnewood, and even
emergency room doctors
couldn’t stop the bleeding.

They had to give her blood
and platelet transfusions to
replace the original blood.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Carol Axelrod with her granddaughter, Emily Scolnick, in March 2008.

Courtesy of the Scolnick family
Hospital employees knew my mother. She
had a great sense of humor and stayed upbeat.”
MICHELLE SCOLNICK
But after a few days, Axelrod’s
body started to reject those,
too. There was only one way for
her to survive: find donors with
similar enough blood that her
body wouldn’t reject.

Luckily, over the course
of a week, Lankenau doctors
worked with the American Red
Cross to find those anonymous
donors. After the successful proce-
dures, Axelrod left the hospital
and lived, on her own, for
another year. She just had to
visit the hospital each week for
transfusions. In the year following the
procedure, Axelrod celebrated
Scolnick’s 10th wedding
anniversary and Emily’s
third birthday. The relatively
new grandmother also got
to take her granddaughter to
Gymboree and music class.

Scolnick made sure to take
pictures of the two of them
together. “My mom was there,”
Scolnick said. “We’re so lucky
we have that memory.”
Axelrod died on July 1, 2008.

That fall, Scolnick approached
Lankenau doctors about repaying
them with a blood drive.

The doctors said yes, and
the Scolnicks turned out family
members, friends and acquain-
tances. Once word spread who
the drive was honoring, hospital
employees turned out, too.

“Hospital employees knew
my mother,” Scolnick said. “She
had a great sense of humor and
stayed upbeat.”
It became the most successful
blood drive in the hospital’s
history to that point, Scolnick said.

The family eventually
turned the collections into
quarterly events, one per season
every year, at locations around
the region. Between 2017-’20,
the family held annual drives
at The Shipley School in Bryn
Mawr, where Emily Scolnick is
a student.

For those events, Emily
Scolnick, not her mother, ran
point, scheduling appoint-
ments, writing recruitment
emails and speaking at assem-
blies to encourage students and
their parents to donate.

“I wish I had gotten to
spend more time with her,”
Emily Skolnick said of her
grandmother. “Her legacy has
certainly lived on.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM