Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY / NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES
On the previous Monday, 9-year-old Tori Leigh Glezos, the first person to receive a bone-marrow transplant in Orange County, had died at Childrens Hospital of Orange County. Her lungs, damaged by cancer and intense radiation therapy, had given out.
But a week later came good news. The second bone-marrow transplant patient, Krystle Lee, nearly 3, was sent home from Childrens Hospital just 32 days after her transplant operation. Doctors said it appeared her cancer was in remission, making chances for a full recovery very good.
“This is a good week, a better Monday than last week,” said Dr. Mitchell Cairo, the hospital’s director of cancer research. “. . . We’re really proud of how well Krystle did.”
The Santa Ana girl suffered from a cancer of the nervous system--neuroblastoma--that had spread to her bones, lungs and the base of her skull. Doctors prescribed a dangerous treatment involving very high doses of chemicals that not only kill the cancer but the girl’s bone marrow as well. Bone marrow produces various blood cells essential to the body’s defense again infection.
Doctors stored samples of Krystle’s bone marrow for replacement once the cancer treatment was completed.
The implantation rooted well, Cairo said. “Any patient who can go home 32 days post-transplant is doing very well.”
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