A Rhea Sunshine

This beautiful baby girl is Rhea. She has endured a lot in her first year of life. The past few months have been the most challenging. In April, Rhea started having seizures. She was taken to the ER at Lehigh Valley. A CT scan revealed that she had a brain tumor. Rhea was transferred to CHOP, where she underwent surgery to remove the tumor. A biopsy was done and it was found that the tumor was malignant. The operation was a success in that the entire tumor was able to be removed. She was diagnosed with anaplastic ependymoma stage 2/3. This is an extremely rare tumor. It was decided that she would undergo 6 weeks of proton radiation therapy to lessen the chances of the tumor coming back. That means 5 days of week of travel for Rhea and her mom, Tasha, from Hamburg to CHOP. Unfortunately, she was only able to have one treatment before she became ill. It was found that she had a blood infection, MSSA, that requires 14 days of IV antibiotics. She will need to remain in the hospital for that two week period. I wanted to do something to help Rhea, Tasha and her partner Blaise and their family, as the expenses from hospitalizations, surgery, treatment, travel, etc, are very high. Please consider helping them through this very difficult time, so that Tasha can put every ounce of her energy and focus into Rhea and not have to stress about the financial burden that comes with getting her baby healthy.