Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
When Lincoln resident Regina Palmer was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a disease that causes your body to stop making blood cells, for a second time in her life, she thought the treatment would be the same as it was the first time around. But when Regina was referred to Vijaya Bhatt, MBBS, a Nebraska Medicine hematologist, she quickly learned her journey to a cure would be just that — a journey. But she didn’t know it would eventually end with an actual journey — one that would lead her and her family to the heart of Europe for an incredible meeting with the man who saved her life.
Regina initially got sick in 2008. She’d just had her first child and noticed she was tired. Really tired. “As a new mom, you just think you’re tired,” recalls Palmer. “I don’t know what normal tired mom really is, but simple things, like trying to walk from the parking lot to the store, I would be out of breath. I thought I was just really out of shape.”
Doctors in Lincoln successfully treated Palmer for aplastic anemia using ATG therapy—a treatment using antibodies derived from a horse. The treatment was successful and she went on to have another child. But the disease returned in 2018.
“Dr. Bhatt told me it was a good thing it was ten years later, because they’d come so much further in treating the disease,” says Palmer. “He said if we find a donor that’s a good match, they see a lot of success with a bone marrow transplant.” But none of Regina’s siblings were a good match. They tried the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Still nothing.
The international registry revealed five possible matches. Of the three people who responded, only one was a complete match. One person in the world on a donor registry who could save her life.
Regina’s treatment in 2019 at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center was a success. But all Regina knew about her donor was he was a 54-year-old man who lived outside the United States.
At a follow-up appointment three years after her transplant, Regina finally learned her donor’s name: Achim Krause. She also learned he lived in Germany. She decided to send him a brief email. “Less than 24 hours later, I had a response from him,” says Palmer. “It was very sweet. We corresponded for almost a year after that.”
Regina’s parents told her that if she was ever able to meet her donor, they would pay for the trip. Once she learned Krause was up for it, she called her father with the news. “Guess what Dad, you’re taking me to Germany,” she recalls telling him. “We planned the trip for nine months and finally left for Germany on May 26.
Palmer’s husband , Adam, their two kids, Regina’s two sisters and her parents accompanied her on the trip. When they arrived in Heinebach, Germany, she said the emotions on both sides were palpable. “His wife was jumping up and down and waving,” Regina recalls as they drove up to the Krauses’ house. “Normally I have a lot of words that I have to say. I’m a talker. But when I saw him, there was not a single word I could think of to say. I burst into tears.”
She says Krause responded the exact same way that she did. “We were crying a lot and hugging a lot and I felt like I was hugging for too long but I didn’t want to let go,” she excitedly remembered. “It was absolutely perfect. Here was this person who I’ve never heard his voice. And I still haven’t! I’m standing face to face with him, and it was all non-verbal. I don’t think I have that with anybody else. It was very beautiful. Just the most beautiful moment.”
She says in the 16 years she’d been married to her husband, she’d never seen him cry like he did at that moment.
Palmer also met Achim’s wife, Jutta, and their four grown children during their stay, which lasted four days. They stayed in the lowest level of the Krauses’ home, which they’d recently converted into an Airbnb.
She says she was surprised how easily the two families got along — almost like they were already family. “I almost forgot we were there for a big deal,” she says. “It was like hanging out with friends. It was just so easy to be with them.”
The Krauses showed Palmer’s family around their region of Germany for several days. The local newspaper even did a story about the emotional meeting.
The Krauses are now coming to visit the Palmers in the U.S. next year.
She says she stills feels incredibly connected to them. “After we left, my husband asked if I missed them, and I said, ‘Oh yeah. I miss them a lot.’ The fact that he turned out to be the great human that he is means there’s a greater power above us that aided in that. I’m so fortunate.”
When Lincoln resident Regina Palmer was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a disease that causes your body to stop making blood cells, for a second time in her life, she thought the treatment would be the same as it was the first time around. But when Regina was referred to Vijaya Bhatt, MBBS, a Nebraska Medicine hematologist, she quickly learned her journey to a cure would be just that — a journey. But she didn’t know it would eventually end with an actual journey — one that would lead her and her family to the heart of Europe for an incredible meeting with the man who saved her life.
Regina initially got sick in 2008. She’d just had her first child and noticed she was tired. Really tired. “As a new mom, you just think you’re tired,” recalls Palmer. “I don’t know what normal tired mom really is, but simple things, like trying to walk from the parking lot to the store, I would be out of breath. I thought I was just really out of shape.”
Doctors in Lincoln successfully treated Palmer for aplastic anemia using ATG therapy—a treatment using antibodies derived from a horse. The treatment was successful and she went on to have another child. But the disease returned in 2018.
“Dr. Bhatt told me it was a good thing it was ten years later, because they’d come so much further in treating the disease,” says Palmer. “He said if we find a donor that’s a good match, they see a lot of success with a bone marrow transplant.” But none of Regina’s siblings were a good match. They tried the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Still nothing.
The international registry revealed five possible matches. Of the three people who responded, only one was a complete match. One person in the world on a donor registry who could save her life.
Regina’s treatment in 2019 at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center was a success. But all Regina knew about her donor was he was a 54-year-old man who lived outside the United States.
At a follow-up appointment three years after her transplant, Regina finally learned her donor’s name: Achim Krause. She also learned he lived in Germany. She decided to send him a brief email. “Less than 24 hours later, I had a response from him,” says Palmer. “It was very sweet. We corresponded for almost a year after that.”
Regina’s parents told her that if she was ever able to meet her donor, they would pay for the trip. Once she learned Krause was up for it, she called her father with the news. “Guess what Dad, you’re taking me to Germany,” she recalls telling him. “We planned the trip for nine months and finally left for Germany on May 26.
Palmer’s husband , Adam, their two kids, Regina’s two sisters and her parents accompanied her on the trip. When they arrived in Heinebach, Germany, she said the emotions on both sides were palpable. “His wife was jumping up and down and waving,” Regina recalls as they drove up to the Krauses’ house. “Normally I have a lot of words that I have to say. I’m a talker. But when I saw him, there was not a single word I could think of to say. I burst into tears.”
She says Krause responded the exact same way that she did. “We were crying a lot and hugging a lot and I felt like I was hugging for too long but I didn’t want to let go,” she excitedly remembered. “It was absolutely perfect. Here was this person who I’ve never heard his voice. And I still haven’t! I’m standing face to face with him, and it was all non-verbal. I don’t think I have that with anybody else. It was very beautiful. Just the most beautiful moment.”
She says in the 16 years she’d been married to her husband, she’d never seen him cry like he did at that moment.
Palmer also met Achim’s wife, Jutta, and their four grown children during their stay, which lasted four days. They stayed in the lowest level of the Krauses’ home, which they’d recently converted into an Airbnb.
She says she was surprised how easily the two families got along — almost like they were already family. “I almost forgot we were there for a big deal,” she says. “It was like hanging out with friends. It was just so easy to be with them.”
The Krauses showed Palmer’s family around their region of Germany for several days. The local newspaper even did a story about the emotional meeting.
The Krauses are now coming to visit the Palmers in the U.S. next year.
She says she stills feels incredibly connected to them. “After we left, my husband asked if I missed them, and I said, ‘Oh yeah. I miss them a lot.’ The fact that he turned out to be the great human that he is means there’s a greater power above us that aided in that. I’m so fortunate.”
