Samantha Washko is the most precious 5-year old girl you could ever meet. She loves counting, singing,
dancing, unicorns and Barbie dolls. She got an award at her pre-school for being the best counter. I think
they had to finally stop her at 350 ! She knows how to speak a little Spanish, French and German.On Thursday, July 19, 2001, 4-year old Samantha Washko was diagnosed with t-cell Acute Lymphocytic Lukemia (ALL). The next week, Nancy and Ken got the news that she has a RARE form of leukemia. Her chromosome pattern was similar to Acute Mylegenous Leukemia (AML) and on top of that, she has the even RARER Philadelphia chromosome. Her prognosis went from 80% treatable/curable to no where near that. Her form of leukemia is recurrent, meaning she can get into remission, but the leukemia will most likely recur. Her only hope is a bone marrow transplant (or stem cell transplant from cord blood).
On Nov. 14, 2001 Samantha had her cord blood transplant that came from a baby boy in NY. Thanks so much to those parents who allowed their gift to save a life rather than just throw away the umbilical cord. 14 days later, it was official, she had new cell growth. Then on Dec 17th, day 34, Sam checked out of the Bone Marrow unit into her apartment in Durham. Sam was miraculously discharged from Duke's Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Team on Feb. 19, 2002 on day 96 !!! Thanks to the awsome doctors and nurses who gave my little niece a second chance at life.
