Christopher Schutte Christopher Schutte

Christopher is a vibrant well rounded 16 year old boy about to start his senior year at Waianae High School, which is located on the beautiful west side of Oahu. He is a very well rounded individual always putting God first in all things. Christopher has always been very active in Church and also enjoys playing Football, Soccer and loves to go fishing.



Christopher has a twin brother named David Jr. both boys were born with a very rare blood disorder called neutropenia, a condition in which no white blood cells are produced to protect against infection. The boys were the first patients in Hawaii known to have neutropenia. Most children with neutropenia didn't live beyond their second or third birthday until a drug injection became available to force the body to make white cells – that drug is called neupogen.


Christopher and David Jr. have been taking daily injections until 2004 when Daivd Jr. was diagnosed with Leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant.


Unfortunately, David Jr. couldn't be treated with chemotherapy because it would wipe out his immune system and expose him to potentially fatal infections, on April 27, 2005 Kawika was admitted to Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children and 10 day later Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children preformed there first cord blood transplant.


Since then Christopher has been undergoing yearly bone marrow aspirations to make sure that no signs of leukemia was detected, we have always been blessed with good news that everything looked normal.


On January 2017 Christopher had one of his routine bone marrow aspirations appointments. The first set of test results came back normal and we were just waiting on one more set of test results that was coming back from the mainland unfortunately, when those test results came back it was not good news, we were told that Christopher’s results show that some of his cells have mutated and those are the type of cells prior to developing leukemia.


We had a family meeting with Christopher’s Doctor to discuss our options and what the next step for Christopher was and we all came into an agreement that having a bone marrow transplant while his body was still healthy was the best option for us rather than waiting until he was actually diagnosed with leukemia.


Unfortunately due to Christopher medical insurance it does not allow us to stay on Island and have the transplant done, we will need to trave from Oahu to San Francisco where we will be going to the University of San Francisco Medical Center(UCSF) to have the procedure done.


They have searched the national bone marrow registry but with no success, they have not found that perfect match that they are looking for but, with medical technology they are able to use Christopher’s dad (David Sr.) as the donor.


Both Christopher and his dad leave for San Francisco on July 7, 2017 to start their journey to recovery, as of right now the date for his actual transplant is set for August 1, 2017.


I will be flying up prior to the transplant day to be with them both. We know that it will not be an easy road ahead of us but, we also know that with the support of our family and friend and with our strong belief that God would never give us anything that we could not handle everything will be ok.


Christine Schutte and Family