MovieChat Forums > The Rainmaker (1997) Discussion > Would a bone marrow transplant have even...

Would a bone marrow transplant have even worked?


Near the end of the movie the dying kid says there was a 90% chance it would of worked. Yet we were told earlier in the movie it was the wrong kind of cancer, the mother just continually stating their doctor wasn't a specialist. Is there anything in the book that confirms that it would have worked.
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Committed Brony

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In the book, he had a twin.

Short Cut, Draw Blood

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Everyone I personally know that has had a bone marrow transplant has died, with one exception. It is an extremely radical, usually last ditch effort, approach to save a patient.

BMT's compromise a person's immune system so thoroughly that the individual will usually die of something other than cancer, such as a virus that leads to pneumonia.

To claim he would have had a 90% chance of survival is optimistic to say the least.


Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H.L. Mencken

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Hell no. Just emotional manipulation.

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That is my main gripe with this film.

At no point was evidence introduced that a bone marrow transplant would help Donny Ray.

While it is true that their physician wasn’t a specialist, she didn’t consult (or wasn’t referred to) a specialist who would recommend a bone marrow transplant.

Without a doctor actually recommending such a procedure, I have a hard time seeing how the claim was justified. This 90% number just came out of nowhere. In real life, that part of the deposition would never have been shown to a jury. An actual specialist would have to testify to that.

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