Jody,
This is very good news. It's only a consultation, but it now sounds like a transplant hasn't been ruled out.
What you were told (that he couldn't get a transplant) doesn't seem right to me since I've always assumed that prisons are required by law to give all necessary medical care. Maybe what they actually said was that he couldn't get a transplant in the prison, meaning that he would have to be transferred elsewhere.
You can probably find information about medical services at the prison's website. For example, the
Bureau of Medical Services of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction uses a three-level approach: the onsite infirmary for routine care, separate nursing facilities for serious illnesses, and access to the Ohio State University Medical Center for inpatient care. Researching his rights as a patient might be just as important as researching the treatment of very severe aplastic anemia. Maybe you can contact the medical department and get some answers about available care.
I think the most important questions Trevor could ask at the transplant consultation are:
1. Have you seen my test results and treatment history and agree with my diagnosis?
2. Am I eligible for a transplant? Is a donor available?
3. Is that the best treatment choice for me? Why or why not?
4. If it's worth trying more drug treatments before going to a transplant, how long should I try which drugs and how would we know when I should go to transplant?
5. How does my being in prison affect all this, compared with VSAA patients in the community?
If he gets the time to ask more questions, here are others:
6. What would a transplant entail? Where would it be, how long would it take, what kind of chemo or radiation would I get, how long would my recovery take, and how would I feel during and after the transplant?
7. What are the possible outcomes and their chances if I have a transplant? What are the possible outcomes and their chances if I stay on drug treatments instead? (Doctors can't answer with certainty but they can tell you what the statistics say about it.)
8. If I get a transplant, where and how would I get followup care?
9. What are the long-term effects of a transplant? Could the VSAA return? If the transplant fails, what would they do?
10. Would a transplant be covered by insurance?