Help Kayla continue fighting MPAL Leukemia

February 2024 ~ Kayla is able to walk again after her ICU stay! Thank God! Kayla is slowly getting her strength back. February 9th has come & gone. It was one year ago that Kayla was diagnosed with MPAL Leukemia! She's expected to start maintenance chemo in about 3 weeks. It will last between 12-14 more months. Karin, Kayla's Mom, hasn't been able to work in a year because of the intense care required to battle Leukemia. It's been a tough road for Kayla & her family. Any support you can provide this one parent family is greatly appreciated. It will take a little time for them to get back on their feet.

Thank you very very much!

December 2023

We are so happy 2023 is coming to a close! We thought Kayla would be ringing in 2024 with only a year of maintenance chemo left! Kayla isn’t currently standing or walking on her own yet; but she is making tremendous progress. She’s working hard daily in speech, occupational & physical therapy in the Children’s Hospital Rehabilitation Unit inpatient. The plan is tentatively scheduled to go back to all outpatient treatments starting mid January (outpatient chemo for 2 more active months & then maintenance chemo for 12 to 14 months plus physical & occupational therapy) Our new goal is for all of her therapies to be completed by her 18th birthday which is early April; God willing. Thank you again to all who have been support in love, prayers, words of encouragement & financially. Kayla’s healing would not be possible without you! Love to all! Kayla has been at Children’s now for 6+ weeks (this time). We’ve bounced between 3 floors. Currently, Kayla is now on the rehabilitation unit (after 20 days on the ventilator - 22 nights in the ICU. She’s learning to stand, walk & talk again! She isn’t able to stand for even 5 seconds, alone. However, Kayla is very motivated to get out of the hospital! The current “approved plan” is tentatively scheduled for discharge, January 11th. Missing another major holiday…

Hello everyone, this is 17 year old Kayla Keegan, thank you for coming to this page.

On February 9th, 2023 Kayla’s mom, Karin, was directed to rush Kayla to Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital. After several weeks of testing, it was determined that she has MPAL (Mixed Phenotype Acute Leukemia). This is a very rare condition that represents only 3-5% of acute leukemias. Kayla has passed many milestones, over the summer, seeing the cancer go into remission, getting her driver’s license, but was recently re-admitted to the hospital, and has been in the Intensive Care Unit the past 2 weeks.

After being rushed to the hospital, she was diagnosed with a fungal infection, in her lungs, and a bacterial infection, in the port she receives the chemo treatments. Because her white blood cell count was zero for over 3 weeks, she has been sedated and put on a ventilator (breathing tube). Kayla is still currently in the ICU battling both (which has affected her brain). She will be spending Thanksgiving, and many more weeks, probably Christmas, in the hospital, and months of rehabilitation. Unfortunately, this time she's fighting for her life! The Dr. said that he expects her to be sedated, as well as on the ventilator, for at least another week.

Karin, a single mom, with 3 kids, has spent countless hours by Kayla during this fight. While doing so, this momma bear has not been able to work. She was planning on going back in Dec., but this emergency has sidetracked that. She will not be able to in the near future, with the tough road ahead. Karin will be by her daughter’s side.

This is the second GoFundMe. The first one helped a lot. We did not, however, expect another extended hospital stay.

Kayla, prior to this, was a pretty normal teenager. Being on the phone, texting, face-timing, laughing at Tik Tok videos, going to the mall and spending time with her younger siblings, Kylie (14) and Jacob (12), but has had her hardships too. Kayla lost her Dad at 11. It’s also terrible to see her spending her senior year of high school, in a hospital room.

You don’t ever want to see something like this happen to anyone, let alone someone you love. It’s hard to hear the news. It’s absolutely brutal to witness.

Please do what you can to help Kayla, and take some of the pressure off of Karin and her family. I also ask you to forward this to anyone that may want to help her.

God bless you, and God bless Kayla. Please keep her in your prayers.