Sydnee Owens
Nick and Nicole Owens, parents of five children, said they knew something was seriously wrong with their 7-year-old daughter, Sydnee, after she ran a fever of 105 degrees for ten days straight. After taking Sydnee to several doctors in their local area, they decided to head from their hometown, Aurora, Neb., to Children’s Hospital in Omaha - two hours away.
After many tests at Children’s, Sydnee was diagnosed with a rare blood syndrome called Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) in June 2006. She received blood transfusions almost every day for three weeks in conjunction with steroids, an anti-rejection medication to reprogram the cells attacking her bone marrow, and aggressive chemotherapy. After a month in the hospital, Sydnee got to go home days before her eighth birthday. But that was only the beginning of this brave girl’s journey.
In August, Sydnee’s fever returned. She was re-admitted to Children’s and diagnosed with stage four Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL), a rare condition not often found in children. Sydnee needed a bone marrow transplant but no one in her family was a match. Her doctors decided to wait a few weeks, try chemotherapy again and then rescan to see if the treatment was working. Six weeks later, only one tumor
remained, so the transplant was put on hold. By February of 2007, Sydnee was cancer free.
Sadly, just three months later, the lymphoma returned. In August, Sydnee received a transplant of her own harvested stem cells. During her 25-day hospital stay, she received blood transfusions to help boost her red blood cell levels as the high dose chemotherapy affected her body’s ability to produce them.
Sydnee’s father, Nick, said that before Sydnee’s cancer he’d just assumed that blood banks were always full. “It is ‘assuming’ that gets people into trouble,” Nick said. “There would be days when Sydnee’s blood type was low and they had to call to get more. It really can be a matter of life or death.”
Two months after her transplant, Sydnee relapsed again. Her cancer did not respond to the aggressive chemotherapy regimen but her bone marrow did. The strong chemotherapy and radiation caused her bone marrow to die off. “Syd’s body was not capable of making her own blood,” said Sydnee’s mother, Nicole. “Blood transfusions are lifesaving until the new stem cells can engraft and Sydnee can start to produce the blood that she needs to survive.”
Nine year-old Sydnee has received at least 50 blood products throughout her treatment and is receiving chemotherapy treatment at Children’s. She is waiting for an allogeneic stem cell transplant from a bone marrow donor and praying her cancer stays in remission until the transplant can take place.
Until then, her family will drive forward with their huge faith and Sydnee will continue having fun with her brothers and sisters while lighting up the world – one smile at a time.