On the arrival of a new baby, the only wish parents make is the kid to be safe and sound. The sex is not that matter of concern, rather the quality of what they are gifted is the core of worries and anxiety. But the world does not show a fair play and at times it turns to be so cruel to us in order to assess our resistance, endeavor and hope.
Ava’s mother says:” She was born in full health but didn’t sleep well at nights and even screamed. Doctors did not recognize any abnormalities and considered it usual stating that there is nothing to be worry about. Since I myself am a night owl, I brought her conditions under specific attention and found out there is something abnormal as she stayed awake longer at nights. Sometimes, I had to use sedatives to make her sleep.
After receiving her second month vaccine, we found some inflammation on the left side of her throat. I found it sort of abnormal and kept my husband informed of it. But he said that she is getting fat and it wouldn’t be a matter of worries.
We took her to some doctors also and they considered it as the side effects of vaccine. But there was one who paid a different attention to this inflammation and asked us to do some tests. The test results revealed that there was something wrong with her blood white cells.
To make sure, we repeated the tests and the results appeared to be the same and she got hospitalized. She was recognized with cancer.
We were baffled and found ourselves trapped with an unknown and mysterious problem. She was hospitalized and just received serum as we were waiting for some more tests results to come from the capital of Iran, Tehran. On my insistence, we transferred Ava to Tehran as her health condition was getting worse with an abnormal liver in bigger size, the whole body looked bruise in color and she looked like a corpse lying down on bed. The rate of white blood cells and platelets were dwindling down and she showed no symptom of life and health. We were losing our hope and our kid in the4 meantime.
God Took us in hand
Ava’s father says that she was diagnosed with Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML). Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a rare and serious form of childhood leukemia (blood cancer). Blood stem cells are made in the bone marrow. JMML occurs when too many blood stem cells become white blood cells called monocytes and myelocytes. The only treatment method for this disease is bone marrow transplantation but at that time and to our great disappointment we did not find any match donor in bone marrow and peripheral stem cells.
Finding ourselves surrounded with great misery and dogged by misfortune, we were following her chemotherapy treatment which came with no success and the only treatment was bone marrow transplantation. In 2014, Dr.Hamidieh, a well-known and famous oncologist and scientist in the realm of stem cells transplantation in pediatric Hospital, proposed to take advantage of Cord Blood Stem Cells cryopreserved with Royan Stem Cell Technology Company. In the light of God’s help and to our great surprise, we could find a blood unit sample with the match rate of 6/5 for Ava.
Ava stayed in hospital for one month and some 6 months in Mahak Hospital where they take care of children who are infected by cancer. After 6 months, Ava’s health got revived thoroughly and now she is in grade two primary school. She is so cute, happy, full of energy and clever student.
We intended to save Ava’s Cord Blood but ….
Ava’s father states that we were supposed to save her cord blood but we didn’t have enough information. When my wife was pregnant we had made this decision. We thought that we should proceed with required procedures and file the application forms at the time of delivery while it was a false belief and we were on the wrong track. It had got too late ……..