Kimmy’s Cancer Recovery Fund

NEW UPDATE:  FEBRUARY 2021

Life came crashing down. 

It was a Friday night after work when my wife told me she was worried about "Kimmy". She didn't seem "right".   I kind of shrugged it off and said I'll take all the kids outside early tomorrow morning and see how she was doing, thinking she needed to be outside more.

It was May 16th around 730 AM and I had all three kids outside in the backyard.  My 5-year-old Amber and 3-year-old Matthew were running around having fun while Kimmy sat in the swing almost motionless.   I knew something was wrong after I saw how pale her face was with the sunlight. I quickly looked over her body and notice her fingertips were blue along with her lips.  My heart sank as I was afraid she had cancer.  I recognized the symptom as I saw them a year earlier when my wife's mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer as well.

I took Kimmy to her pediatrician and he felt she had Covid.  I was relieved when he told me this as I was worried about cancer.  Five minutes after her blood sample was taken he came into the exam room in a hurry and said point-blank, " I feel Kimmy has leukemia and needs to go to the emergency room immediately.  This all happened on a Saturday.     By Monday she was officially diagnosed with leukemia.  The doctor said, "this is pretty straight forward to treat compared to 20 years ago".   Unfortunately, the doctor did not know at the time that Kimmy actually has a very aggressive subtype of leukemia called "Philadelphia-like leukemia", hard to treat and clear from the body completely.  This was confirmed about 3 weeks later.

Kimmy has been in and out of Golisano Children's Hospital from May until November.  The doctors told us she would need to be transferred to John's Hopkins All Children's in St. Petersburg for a bone marrow transplant as the treatments were not clearing the leukemia she had in her body.  In early December I took Kimmy to her first radiation appointment in preparation for her bone marrow transplant.  I stopped working completely at this point to avoid exposure to Covid and be with Kimmy during her treatments full time.  She had her bone marrow transplant on December 16th a day before her 8th birthday. Fortunately, we celebrated both her and her brother's birthday at the end of November along with an early Christmas tree. We celebrated and danced all together opening presents and eating cake like it was our last party.   Little did Kimmy know the difficult journey she thought was behind her was actually ahead of her.

My wife is a champion.  She was the bone marrow donor for Kimmy and ended up staying with Kimmy since her transplant in December.  Over the following weeks, Kimmy has suffered some "setbacks" from her chemo medications including acute kidney failure, liver and breathing issues.  She experienced a "code blue" and stopped breathing for 3 minutes last week while they were reinserting her breathing tube.  She is currently on a ventilator and dialysis to stabilizer her body. 


 The most important challenge at this point is due to an uncontrolled viral infection called CMV (cytomegalovirus) which most people normally have been exposed to. This virus runs wild when you have no immune system.  Currently, the doctors have exhausted all the antiviral medications.  

There is one final hope.  A special immune cell medication that is only available in Cincinnati Ohio which cannot be shipped to Johns Hopkins. This investigation medication is like inserting a mature immune system to attack the virus.     The hospital has arranged a medivac air ambulance flight this Thursday at sunrise to transport Kimmy for the day to All Children's in Cincinnati Ohio.  I (dad) will travel with her on this private medical flight along with two ICU nurses to look after Kimmy.  This journey will take around 12 hours to complete.  My wife will remain in Bonita to take care of our Amber and Matthew.  We pray this will be successful to save Kimmy. She is such a sweet girl and caring.  She has a heart of gold.   

Thank you for all your prayers!!

**All funds donated will be used to help Kimberly recover in any way possible during this difficult time. 

Thank you so kindly for helping Kimmy,  

Daniel & Taimi Hachey