When soon-to-be dad and mom Shawn and Hayley discovered they have been anticipating, they have been overjoyed concerning the journey forward.
“We have been actually excited,” Shawn mentioned.
Their daughter, Seeley, was born on the scenic Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi in September of 2021. Regardless of a wholesome delivery and profitable transition residence, Shawn and Hayley acknowledged one thing was improper after about two weeks.
“She had fever and began to throw up,” Shawn defined. “We took Seeley to our native emergency room, and I requested them to do a blood check for my peace of thoughts.”
What occurred subsequent would change the household’s life without end.
“Seeley’s white blood cell depend got here again extraordinarily excessive, so that they took one other check,” mentioned Hayley. “Shortly after that, we noticed the crew actually begin operating on the opposite facet of the glass doorways to our room.”
Seeley was flown to the bigger island of Oʻahu by way of medevac, the place docs identified her with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a most cancers of the blood and bone marrow.
“It’s not one thing you possibly can think about listening to,” recalled Shawn. “Our 2-week-old child getting a analysis like that. It was a bodily shock.”
AML is the commonest sort of most cancers in kids. Docs have no idea what causes the adjustments in cells that result in AML. There is no such thing as a identified approach to stop it, and in most kids, leukemia is aggressive and will get worse rapidly with out remedy.
Seeley’s white blood cell depend climbed to harmful ranges, and oncologists in Oʻahu urged Hayley and Shawn to contemplate chemotherapy remedy instantly, regardless of Seeley’s very younger age and small dimension.
“They mentioned she would die by the tip of the week if we didn’t do it, so we made the onerous determination to threat her life in an effort to reserve it,” mentioned Hayley.
Seeley began chemotherapy, however her situation grew to become much more sophisticated when genetic testing revealed her leukemia was particularly aggressive and high-risk. Chemotherapy alone wouldn’t remedy her, she wanted a bone marrow transplant (BMT) to fully eradicate the cancer-causing cells.
A BMT entails treating a affected person with excessive doses of chemotherapy (and typically radiation) to eradicate as many most cancers cells as potential. This intense remedy additionally destroys the affected person’s personal immune cells. Then, the affected person is infused with wholesome donor stem cells to create a brand new immune system that may determine and destroy any remaining most cancers cells.
As a result of she was so younger and her illness was high-risk, Seeley’s oncologist in Oʻahu advisable her household switch to a hospital that might present the extremely specialised care wanted for her transplant.
“Once I requested the oncologist the place he would go if it was his baby, he mentioned he can be on the primary flight to Seattle Youngsters’s,” mentioned Hayley.
Seattle Youngsters’s Leukemia and Lymphoma Program suppliers deal with extra infants, kids, teenagers and younger adults with leukemia than another hospital within the northwest United States. The crew, which makes a speciality of molecular testing to pinpoint the distinctive elements of every baby’s most cancers to determine the very best remedy, labored collaboratively to develop a personalised remedy plan that may give Seeley the very best likelihood for a remedy.
“We knew we needed to get her to transplant rapidly, but additionally wanted suppose out of the field on the best way to transplant Seeley and what we must always do to maintain her leukemia away,” defined Todd Cooper, DO, part head of Oncology and director of Seattle Youngsters’s Leukemia and Lymphoma Program.
Seeley’s dad and mom and sister have been solely partial or half matches, however Seattle Youngsters’s Excessive-Danger Leukemia Crew, which is well-known for leaving no stone unturned in serving to sufferers survive and thrive, regarded for one more means.
“What units our program in Seattle aside from in all places within the nation is our wraparound, personalised, and really multidisciplinary method to care,” mentioned Dr. Cooper “We collaborate with each other on each affected person, from professional physicians to pathology and analysis.”
Dr. Cooper and his Most cancers and Blood Problems Middle colleagues, together with Monica Thakar, MD, the inpatient medical director of Seattle Youngsters’s Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program, evaluated Seeley’s remedy choices.
“We regarded within the nationwide marrow donor program (NMDP) registry however couldn’t discover a well-matched donor for Seeley’s BMT,” defined Dr. Thakar. “Teams under-represented within the registry and sufferers with multi-ethnic backgrounds, like Seeley, might be tougher to match, which ends up in disparities within the identification of unrelated donors by the NMDP.”
Fortunately, Dr. Thakar is main a medical trial at 14 hospitals in the US that enabled Hayley to change into Seeley’s donor, regardless of being a half-match.
“Our trial is learning the usage of pure killer (NK) cells from the donor to acknowledge leukemia cells and assault them to stop recurrence,” added Dr. Thakar. “NK cell immunotherapy has a robust observe file in treating AML in a secure and novel means.”
After a number of rounds of chemotherapy throughout her first few months of life and the profitable bone marrow transplant facilitated alongside the Fred Hutchinson Most cancers Middle, Seeley was declared cancer-free in Could 2022, solely eight months after arriving at Seattle Youngsters’s.
“The individuals who deal with children with most cancers at Seattle Youngsters’s are simply so extremely particular and have devoted their complete lives to taking good care of these kids,” mentioned Dr. Cooper.
Right this moment, Seeley is again residence in Hawaiʻi and is lively and stuffed with pleasure. Her dad and mom name her their little miracle.
“Seeley has a brilliant future forward,” added Dr. Thakar. “I count on she’s going to proceed rising by childhood and into maturity.”
“It was nothing wanting a miracle that we found her most cancers and began remedy, a most cancers that had virtually no signs, and undetected, would have taken her life earlier than she was even a month previous,” shared Hayley.
Seeley’s household is without end grateful to everybody who helped save their daughter’s life.
“ Seeley, one phrase that involves thoughts is power,” mentioned Hayley. “It doesn’t matter what was thrown at her, she was there with a smile on her face. It gave me hope and power. Our confidence in Seattle Youngsters’s crew outmoded our expectations and I believe it was the very best place we may have been for most cancers care.”
Study extra about Seattle Youngsters’s Leukemia and Lymphoma Program by visiting: Leukemia and Lymphoma Program | Seattle Youngsters’s Hospital (seattlechildrens.org)
