Zoe's battle against Leukemia

Hello to my dear family, friends, global support networks, and loving community,

Our 4-year-old little Zoe is such a lovely soul. She brings so much happiness wherever she goes. Her infectious laugh and smile will draw you near. Zoe reminds us every day of the love she has for the world and surprises us all the time with her positive personality. Zoe has so much love and care to offer to the world. One day we were at the Houston Zoo with Zoe, and we had a great day with her. That night when we were praying together, Zoe said “I want to pray for that little kid in the wheelchair that was crying so God can bring him love, toys, and happiness”. This is our brave loving little Zoe, and she is so precious. Please help our daughter in her journey to fight leukemia.

We are raising funds for Zoe’s cancer treatment because she is designated as high-risk, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center transplant team said that we don’t have the financial clearance to proceed with her transplant. Also, the MD Anderson Cancer Center financial department said Zoe’s cancer treatment wasn’t covered by our insurance plan. So, at this point, we are responsible for the entire cancer treatment bill. Every donation no matter how big or small can make a difference in our daughter Zoe’s cancer treatment and transplant efforts. Your contributions will be used for the treatment, recovery, and rehabilitation of Zoe’s health. We received a transplant bill estimate of $397,000-$897,000 and there is a large deposit that we have to come up with. Zoe's cancer treatment bills are separate from the transplant bill. We thank you in advance for supporting our daughters Zoe's battle against leukemia.

Here is our daughter Zoe’s story:

On January Thursday the 5th 2023, our daughter Zoe returned to preschool and got sick with something. On Saturday she started showing symptoms of fever, fatigue, and lethargy. On Sunday she was very hot to the touch I noticed her heart beating very rapidly during the day while sleeping on the couch next to me. I put a pulse oximeter on her finger to find that her heart rate was 175bpm resting with a 104.5 fever. I called my wife to tell her that we needed to take Zoe to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, Zoe’s condition worsened and wasn’t taken seriously at the hospital. The doctor thought her condition wasn’t life-threatening, but we told the doctor that she had already had covid and RSV in the past. We explained that whatever sickness she presently had was worse than covid and RSV. Swab tests were performed, and all came back negative except the strep test which never came back positive or negative. The doctor remained convinced that it was viral pharyngitis even with the strep test didn’t come back positive. Even though Zoe’s skin was so pale and she looked terrible, she was discharged. The doctors’ advice was to give her plenty of fluids and a fever reducer, but her condition still worsened. We took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday to get a strep test done because the hospital’s test never came back positive or negative, and it came back positive right away. Amoxicillin was prescribed but it wasn’t enough for what she was sick of.

On Wednesday, January 11th we had to rush her to the hospital in the Medical Center in Houston. After waiting 7 hours in the lobby of the hospital and then finally getting a room for Zoe, we finally got to speak to the doctor. The doctor was giving us the run around about her condition, she minimized her illness and what she was going through. She said that if it was her child that she would push fluids and give Tylenol accordingly. If we would have listened to that doctor, Zoe would have died. The doctor was reluctant to get blood work done because she said in her opinion that it was not necessary and that this sickness needed to take its course. I had a gut feeling that it was something more. I disagreed with her and gave her an order to get a whole blood assay panel done. She said it was a bit excessive for blood but then walked off. After some time, the nurses were in disbelief at her blood results because everything came back in red. They performed 2 more blood draws, some doctors were scratching their heads about what was going on with Zoe. All of a sudden, an African American lady showed up with no badge credentials demanding that our daughter needed critical care, saying loudly “LOOK AT HER, LOOK AT HER BREATHING FAST, LOOK AT HER SKIN AND EYES, SHE IS CRITICALLY ILL!! YALL, SHE NEEDS ATTENTION NOW!!” My wife and I believe that this lady was truly an angel because at that moment a team of doctors and nurses rushed in and started to create a makeshift ICU for Zoe. When I saw them bringing in the ventilator machine, I knew something bad was coming. Her blood pressure was like 45/30 and her heart rate was at 185bpm averaging and a very low white blood count.

The doctors came back with a diagnosis an hour later. Zoe’s body had been going through SEPTIC SHOCK from SEPSIS which is deadly because she had no immune system. The strep bacteria ran rampant throughout her body. Shortly after that diagnosis, the doctors came in again and asked my wife and I to step outside to discuss something more important. We were mortified by what they had to say. We thought that they were going to tell us to call our family to come and see Zoe for the last time. The doctors took us into an empty room and gave us the news. Zoe was diagnosed with LEUKEMIA AML with a tumor protein 53 (TP53) genetic disorder. We fell to the floor crying. Zoe was rushed upstairs to the PICU for emergency treatment, and a day later transferred to MD Anderson Cancer Center for a higher level of critical care that she needed.

As of January 11th, Zoe has been in the hospital which is day 63 here at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas.

PARENTS AND FRIENDS, YOU NEED TO TRUST YOUR GUT. GET THE BLOOD WORK DONE, AND DON’T LET ANY DOCTORS OR NURSES MINIMIZE YOUR CHILD'S ILLNESS. WE NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT WAS LEUKEMIA, BUT SHE COULD HAVE DIED IF WE LEFT THAT HOSPITAL FROM THE DOCTOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS.

Zoe has received treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center for the following:

Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia

Septic Shock

Septic Shock Induced Hypotension

Hypertension

Cardiac Arrhythmia

Cardiomegaly

Enlarged Kidney leukemia infiltration

Enlarged Liver leukemia infiltration

Acute Respiratory Failure With Hypoxia

Antineoplastic Chemotherapy Induced Anemia

Antineoplastic Chemotherapy Induced Pancytopenia

Pericardial Effusion

Pulmonary Effusion

Prolonged High Fever

Blood Coagulation Disorder

Cancer-Associated Pain

Disorder OF Fluid And/Or Electrolyte

Febrile Neutropenia

Fluid Overload

Hypoalbuminemia

Hypokalemia

Pneumonia

Retention of Urine

Severe Protein-Calorie Nutrition

Tachycardia

Bradycardia

Urinary Tract Infection Caused by Pseudomonas

Submandibular leukemia infiltration

Submental leukemia infiltration

Upper Jugular Anterior leukemia infiltration

Upper Jugular Posterior leukemia infiltration

Parotid leukemia infiltration

Bucco-Facial leukemia infiltration

Anterior Cervical leukemia infiltration

Retro-Auricular leukemia infiltration

Retro-Pharyngeal leukemia infiltration