Aria's Bone Marrow Transplant Journey

Three-year-old Aria was diagnosed with Bone Marrow Failure last October. Her immune system is attacking her Bone Marrow and her Bone Marrow is then attacking her white blood cells, red blood cells and Platelets. Her body is in a vicious cycle of attacking itself and failing to produce what it needs. In the Bone Marrow Aspirirt, they found Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) clonal cells which is a rare, acquired, life-threatening disease of the blood. (1-5 people in every 1 million) Typically, this isn't seen in children, but in middle aged adults. Aria's condition has developed into Aplastic Anemia (2 in every 1 million people). The best treatment for Aplastic Anemia is a Bone Marrow Transplant.

A team of doctors from UCSF, Standford, and the National Oncology team has been working hard to determine the path moving forward, and since Aria's condition is critical she needs a transplant as soon as possible. After a lot of consideration, the doctors have confirmed that they are moving forward with a donor from the International Registry who is a 10/12 match. This is instead of using Aria's identical twin 12/12 because of Arias's PNH clone as they are concerned that is something on the immune system that they do not yet have a test for. The timeline for the transplant is dependent on when we can arrange to get the donor's stem cells but the goal is for Aria to be admitted to start chemotherapy and radiation the first week of February. Chemotherapy and Radiation are necessary to kill all the remaining bone marrow to prepare for the transplant. Aria will be in the hospital and outpatient clinic for more than 3 months.

The journey has been really hard already and will get harder. We are reaching out to all of you for your monetary help. Angela and David together with Aria's grandparents are currently going from lab works, weekly blood transfusions, biopsies. Traveling from Antioch to Kaiser Oakland, and UCSF. They are taking time off work unpaid to care of not only Aria but their other 4 children. Once the transplant occurs one parent will have to stay with Aria and or take turns in between. Medical bills keep piling up, and endless parking fees at all these hospitals. Our heart breaks to acknowledge and see all that my cousins are going through.

In addition to all this pain their son Landon, was diagnosed a few weeks apart from Aria's diagnosis with LCH (Langerhans cell histiocytosis). As many of you know Landon has faced cancer before. The physicians have started a non aggressive treatment due to his tumor suppressor gene deletion, he is at high risk for secondary cancers so its best to stay away from chemotherapy and radiation unless he absolutely has to. Angela and David now how to split their time with their children sometimes both Landon and Aria going through surgeries at the same time.

Any donations will support them through their journey and help them focus on their children instead of stressing about unpaid time off work medical bills, and all regular bills. If you are able we also encourage you to donate blood through your local Red Cross. Only 2% of people in the US donate blood out of the 328 million people that live here. Your blood can save a person's life.

With all our love we thank you for your contribution!

Scarlet, Michelle and Kim