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HEMATOLOGY SERVICE
Diagnosed at 4,
aplastic anemia
Katelyn only has one complaint.
"Her hair has grown back just enough
for people to mistake her for a little boy. She hates that," said
Katelyn’s mom, Mary.
For Katelyn, returning from illness to
"normal life" has been a journey in every sense of the word.
Two weeks after her fourth birthday,
Katelyn was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a life-threatening
disease that hinders the ability of bone marrow to produce new blood
cells. The disease left Katelyn dependent on blood and platelet
transfusions to remain alive.
When one treatment option after another
failed, Mary brought Katelyn from their home in Illinois to Texas
Children’s Cancer Center for a
bone marrow transplant.
Mary said she and her daughter always
will think of the patients, parents and medical staff that they came
to know at Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s transplant unit as part
of their family. At the hospital, staff members made a point of
treating the whole child, she said.
Today, Katelyn’s doctors are cautiously
optimistic about the procedure’s success. If Katelyn remains free of
her disease one year after the transplant, the odds of her staying
healthy are even better, Mary said.
"Her original disease could come back,
but the chances are low," Mary said. "It’s working for now. Looking
at Katelyn, you’d never be able to tell anything had been wrong."
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