Sameer didn’t make it
I heard from friends close to Sameer Bhatia that he passed away early this morning. The Help Sameer blog shows a spiral of medical complications from leukemia, ending in a stroke.
Last year’s bone marrow drives were hugely successful in getting 24,000 people signed up for the donor registry and finding donors for Sameer and for Vinay Chakravarthy. The campaign used blogging, a Facebook app, and video appeals by desi celebrities like Kal Penn to drive turnout for cheek swabbing events. Vinay’s hanging in there, though his leukemia has come back. I had never met him before the drive, but went to school with his brother and wish him well.
Sameer and I knew each other from the Bay Area startup scene and hung out a couple of times in Bombay, where he had his extended family and the back office of his mobile gaming startup. He had just gotten married. During the late ’90s tech boom he’d started a CD swap site which came up with an interesting barter algorithm for which he hoped to license patent rights. It’s fitting that his innovation in economic matching was followed by his friends’ innovations in genetic matching.
Less than a year ago, I had run into Sameer and his wife at Olive in Bombay. Like many Amrikans, he had some low-level health irritations which he blamed at the time on pollution and Bombay’s different immunosphere. He was smart, energetic and handsome. I can scarcely believe he’s gone.
Thanks to everyone who registered with the bone marrow program, and especially to the donor. We helped give him a few additional, precious months and a fighting chance. My thoughts are with his family.
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Sameer at Mocha, Carter Road, Bombay, 8/29/06 |
on Thursday, March 27th, 2008, 3:27 pm in Profiles › 
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Manish,
Please accept my condolences.This is really sad news :-( .I signed up for the marrow registry last year to help Vinay and hope that the community will continue to support efforts. I pray that Sameer’s family has the strength to get through this awful time
Oh man!! So sorry to hear this.
I’m sorry to hear this too. So sad. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. How hard this must be for them.
It was great to see the community come together the way it did.
We’re going to miss Sameer.
My condolences to his family.
so sorry for your loss, manish (& others)… such tragic news :(
this is such sad news Manish..I check their website everyday to see how he is doing.
I organised and ran three bone marrow drives for Anand ( a two year old boy), sameer and vinay and got 100 people regisited in Indianapolis..the young kids and youngsters in samar website made me cry a lot manytimes..
this morning I checked his blog..was hoping his bone marrow will recover and was wondering why it didnot recover for so long..I was scared of this news..to tell u the truth sameer last 15 days were exactly the same last 2 days of my dad..same confusion, same organ failures slowly..
when they were trying mylotarg with chemo I felt like writing on the website that might not work as mylotarg didnot work for my dad at all..it has a lot of side effects too..but then I didnot have courage to write..I thought sameer and vinay are so so young compared to my dad..thought they can fight the disease better…this is such a sad news..
Looks like sameer lived his life well and utilised his time and life well, enjoyed life with his wife and family as long as he could..bright young man and what a sad young death..he fought bravely…may his soul rest in peace.
I feel for the family..specially elderly parents loosing an young son..hope sameer dad and mom have other children to take care of them and hopefully sameer is not the only child.. I feel for his young wife too..such sad young death..
may be we scientists should work hard and find good medicines soon for all these cancers..
My condolences to his family and you, Manish.
I’m just lost for words. Manish, Sandeep - you guys knew him better than most of us. While all we can do is support his family, I’m hoping you guys can drive the community into more organized driven force to help find donors. Will we ever find a cure? Don’t know. but I’m hoping we can at least take some positive steps towards it…
So sad news. I registered for the bone marrow registry at SAJA last year after hearing about Sameer and Vinay. May he rest in eternal peace.