Nine-Year-Old Girl Has Rare Blood Disease
Pray for the Wells family.
9-year-old with rare disease undergoes infusion of donor cells
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A 9-year-old girl whose family moved from Albuquerque to Wisconsin so she could get treatment for a rare blood disease has undergone an infusion of donor cells to try to stabilize her condition, her father says.
Kailee Wells underwent the stem cell boost on Aug. 30, her father, Owen Wells, said in an e-mail update.
"Now, we start the stressful waiting and watching again, hoping in three or four weeks Kailee's (blood cell) counts will start to climb once more," he said.
Kailee initially underwent a bone marrow transplant in January 2005 with cells that were not a perfect match. That transplant ultimately failed, but the girl appeared to be doing well after a second marrow transplant last November at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Doctors pronounced her free of severe aplastic anemia, a disease in which the bone marrow no longer produces enough red blood cells. But her father said that in the past five months, Kailee was requiring more blood transfusions as her blood counts decreased.
The stem cell boost was necessary because of "late graft failure," which caused her marrow to stop producing.
The cell infusion procedure used marrow from the same donor used in the second transplant, a physician from China who was found to be a perfect cell match.
Owen and Linda Wells adopted Kailee from China when she was a year old.
When Kailee was diagnosed with the disease, her story made headlines as her parents orchestrated dozens of marrow donor drives and traveled to China trying to find a donor for their daughter.
The Wells family has a web site:
www.kaileegetwells.com
9-year-old with rare disease undergoes infusion of donor cells
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A 9-year-old girl whose family moved from Albuquerque to Wisconsin so she could get treatment for a rare blood disease has undergone an infusion of donor cells to try to stabilize her condition, her father says.
Kailee Wells underwent the stem cell boost on Aug. 30, her father, Owen Wells, said in an e-mail update.
"Now, we start the stressful waiting and watching again, hoping in three or four weeks Kailee's (blood cell) counts will start to climb once more," he said.
Kailee initially underwent a bone marrow transplant in January 2005 with cells that were not a perfect match. That transplant ultimately failed, but the girl appeared to be doing well after a second marrow transplant last November at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Doctors pronounced her free of severe aplastic anemia, a disease in which the bone marrow no longer produces enough red blood cells. But her father said that in the past five months, Kailee was requiring more blood transfusions as her blood counts decreased.
The stem cell boost was necessary because of "late graft failure," which caused her marrow to stop producing.
The cell infusion procedure used marrow from the same donor used in the second transplant, a physician from China who was found to be a perfect cell match.
Owen and Linda Wells adopted Kailee from China when she was a year old.
When Kailee was diagnosed with the disease, her story made headlines as her parents orchestrated dozens of marrow donor drives and traveled to China trying to find a donor for their daughter.
The Wells family has a web site:
www.kaileegetwells.com
posted by Ray at 7:37 PM
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