R.O.C.K. Ride - Little Bios

Katie

Katie was a wonderful child that brought much happiness to the people in her life. She was very intelligent and loved to sing songs and make crafts. She loved being a big sister to Bryan. It was devastating to our family in December 2003 when Katie was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). After completing her initial treatment at the end of August 2004 we prayed that she had beaten cancer for good. Sadly, it was not meant to be. Just a short time later, in October 2004 we learned that Katie had relapsed and that a bone marrow transplant was her only hope for survival.

At the end of November 2004, we received the wonderful news that Katie was in remission again and that we could proceed with a bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately, a bone marrow donor was not found in the worldwide registry. Once the search for a bone marrow donor was declared unsuccessful, we started to look at alternative transplant options and decided to use Katie's dad as the donor. This type of transplant is called a haploidentical transplant because Katie's dad was only half-matched to Katie. It would be a risky transplant but we felt it was necessary.

A few weeks before heading to transplant, we received more bad news. Katie had relapsed again. She could not receive her transplant unless she was in remission so she started more chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the chemotherapy did not work. After trying a couple different protocols, we started to look at clinical trials such as transplanting in relapse. We never had the opportunity to try this though. Tragically, at the end of June 2005 Katie received a contaminated platelet transfusion and died of infection in less than 24 hours.

Prior to starting more treatment upon her second relapse, the Make a Wish Foundation blessed us with the opportunity to take Katie on a Wish trip to Disney World. Katie had so much bad luck in the last year and a half of her life but this was the one bit of good luck for her. What an incredible experience. We will forever remember the smile that was plastered on her face throughout the trip. There were tears of joy in our eyes when her wish of meeting Cinderella came true.

We will always remember how Katie endeared herself to the staff at the hospital. She never let hospital life get her down and every moment spent with her was truly delightful. We are so proud of her for being courageous in face of the many painful and scary tests and procedures. It was her constant ability to keep smiling and giggling through everything that gave us the strength to keep fighting with her.

Katie is deeply missed and has left her mark on the world forever.

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