8-year-old Briana loved swimming, playing outside, Minecraft, and being a big sister to her brother Brandon.
In October 2017 when Briana was 7 years old and in second grade, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a highly aggressive form of bone cancer. Within a week of diagnosis, she had a 9-month treatment plan developed consisting of 10 weeks of intensive chemotherapy, surgery to remove the tumor in her leg, followed by an additional 20 weeks of post-surgical chemotherapy. Our world changed overnight.
Briana’s treatment began in October and were all done inpatient at The University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Each stay ranged from 2-9 days for chemotherapy, blood transfusions, and high fevers resulting from her compromised immune system. From October to June, Briana had 4 surgeries and was admitted to the hospital 24 times for a total of 77 nights in the hospital.
Midway through treatment she had her right leg amputated through the knee to safely remove the tumor. She continued to have clear scans until she completed treatment in mid-June. During her “end of treatment” scans it was discovered that the cancer had returned higher up in her amputated leg as well as metastasized to her lungs. In July, Briana underwent another amputation surgery to remove an additional 8 ¼ inches of cancerous bone from her right femur. From the moment of diagnosis, Briana spent almost every week in the hospital receiving chemotherapy treatment. In this time, she endured 5 surgeries, including 2 leg amputations.
Meanwhile, a new treatment plan for Briana’s relapse was being drafted by the top pediatric osteosarcoma physicians at the Cleveland Clinic. Her care was transferred there in hopes of finding effective pediatric osteosarcoma treatment options, which unfortunately do not exist. Once a child relapses with osteosarcoma, there is no standard of care.
The cancer in Briana’s lungs tripled in size in less than a month. After exhausting all options, the cancer continued to spread, and our precious first-born child passed away on August 17, 2018. We miss her every moment of every day.
The sad reality is that any child can be diagnosed with cancer. Briana was a perfectly happy and healthy little girl for 7 and a half years before being diagnosed. Our family has no history of cancer and no risk factors that could have predisposed Briana to cancer. Every 4 minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer, and of those diagnosed, 1 out of every 5 children will not survive. Those who do end up suffering serious complications from the chemotherapy that they needed to survive, and many face relapse and secondary cancers. Our children deserve better.
