Baby Diya Leukemia treatment fund
Donation protected
3-year-old Diya is our only daughter and we had moved with great excitement to Australia in May 2018.
While the world was getting ready to welcome the new year of 2019, life came crashing for us when we had to rush Diya to the hospital on the 31 Dec 18 and had been told by midnight that our little princess was diagnosed with Leukemia.
The next few nights came tougher with the diagnosis result getting harsher as the type of Leukemia was classified as Acute Myeloid Leukemia Type 5 which is the rarest type of chromosome disorder. The doctors aimed to cure this with intensive chemo-therapies followed by a Bone Marrow Transplant. The first chemotherapy was started on 4 Jan 19 and even after one month of hospitalization Diya’s response to medication was very poor. February had nothing better to offer when it was learnt that none of us family members were a match as the bone marrow donors. So, Diya had to undergo continuous intensive Chemotherapy sessions with full-time hospitalization for close to 140 days. During this period, she has been subject to multiple treatments including chemo sessions, blood transfusions, platelets infusions, lumbar puncture month-month, feeding through a nasal gastric tube and a Hickman’s line on a long-term basis.
In May 2019, she has had a bone marrow transplant through an unrelated donor and is now under medical care. She will need ongoing support for the next 2 years at least with continuous visits to hospital. She has a suppressed immune system and will need close medical monitoring and care over and above the normal needs of a child of her age.
While the above phase has been a time of significant emotional distress and upheaval, it has also been equally challenging on the financial aspect as both of us parents could not work initially for a few months and subsequently one of us had to give up our job completely to take full-time care and attend to Diya while also taking care of our son who is 6 years old. The next few months are also going to be financially taxing and hence the funds raised would be used towards Diya’s treatment and support us.
While the world was getting ready to welcome the new year of 2019, life came crashing for us when we had to rush Diya to the hospital on the 31 Dec 18 and had been told by midnight that our little princess was diagnosed with Leukemia.
The next few nights came tougher with the diagnosis result getting harsher as the type of Leukemia was classified as Acute Myeloid Leukemia Type 5 which is the rarest type of chromosome disorder. The doctors aimed to cure this with intensive chemo-therapies followed by a Bone Marrow Transplant. The first chemotherapy was started on 4 Jan 19 and even after one month of hospitalization Diya’s response to medication was very poor. February had nothing better to offer when it was learnt that none of us family members were a match as the bone marrow donors. So, Diya had to undergo continuous intensive Chemotherapy sessions with full-time hospitalization for close to 140 days. During this period, she has been subject to multiple treatments including chemo sessions, blood transfusions, platelets infusions, lumbar puncture month-month, feeding through a nasal gastric tube and a Hickman’s line on a long-term basis.
In May 2019, she has had a bone marrow transplant through an unrelated donor and is now under medical care. She will need ongoing support for the next 2 years at least with continuous visits to hospital. She has a suppressed immune system and will need close medical monitoring and care over and above the normal needs of a child of her age.
While the above phase has been a time of significant emotional distress and upheaval, it has also been equally challenging on the financial aspect as both of us parents could not work initially for a few months and subsequently one of us had to give up our job completely to take full-time care and attend to Diya while also taking care of our son who is 6 years old. The next few months are also going to be financially taxing and hence the funds raised would be used towards Diya’s treatment and support us.
Organizer
Anand Vinay Marneni
Organizer