A four-year-old Victoria girl who’s already endured two kinds of cancer is in terrible pain once more, just weeks after being discharged from hospital.
Hannah Day’s leukemia disappeared earlier this year thanks to a stem cell transplant from her mom, and the trooper tot was released from BC Children’s Hospital on May 6.
Sadly, that same treatment caused a complication known as graft-versus-host disease, which has left poor Hannah with a painful rash similar to third-degree burns.
“My stem cells are actually attacking Hannah’s body,” mom Brooke Ervin told CTV News. “She doesn’t even want to listen to me or talk to me right now, she just spends her time screaming.”
Ervin said the disease, which is very common in transplant patients, has spread the itchy rashes over 90 per cent of Hannah’s body.
She was recently re-admitted to hospital so they could administer intravenous steroids.
“She’s miserable. She’s so upset,” Ervin said. “We can’t really tell her anything, we just hope that one day this will all end. I mean, it has to – this child has suffered most of her life.”
Fortunately, doctors say graft-versus-host disease isn’t necessarily a bad sign for Hannah.
“I don’t like seeing the immune system attack Hannah but what I’m hoping is the same immune system is attacking her leukemia, which will hopefully be what helps cure her,” Dr. Rod Rassekh said.
Rassekh said Hannah is likely to be re-admitted for the disease again, but it pales in comparison to other potential complications she could experience.
She also has a high risk of relapse, particularly over the next six to 12 months.
Hannah’s long battle began two years ago, when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma on her second birthday. She beat the disease after 16 months of treatment, including chemotherapy.
Tragically, just two weeks later her family learned Hannah’s chemotherapy drugs had led to leukemia.
With chemo no longer an option, the family decided to battle the second cancer with a bone marrow transplant using her mother’s stem cells instead.
Despite all Hannah has been through and all that lies ahead, her mom said the family isn’t giving up hope.
“I refuse to break down. I refuse to accept this isn’t going to turn out in a positive way,” Ervin said.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson
