7-Year-Old Girl Loses Long Fight With Bone Cancer

Holly Keuthan, a 7-year-old who spent the last two years battling bone cancer that spread throughout her body, died Monday afternoon at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

Her parents, Jan and Karen Keuthan of Dana Point, took Holly off life-support machines after learning that the disease had attacked her liver and that there was bleeding in her lungs.

“This is a child that fought a really long, hard battle with cancer. That’s a tough disease,” Karen Keuthan said Monday evening. “We just decided she had fought long enough. Mentally, I think she was willing to still fight, but physically, her body just gave out.”

Holly, who was the subject of a Times series last December, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in January, 1991, about six months after she began complaining of chronic pain in a leg. By the time she was diagnosed, the cancer had already spread to a lung.

One of the family’s first struggles was with Aetna, their insurance company. The insurers at first refused to pay for a $350,000 bone marrow transplant that tripled the child’s chances of surviving but reversed their decision after news articles detailed Holly’s plight.

She received the transplant on July 18, 1991, after several months of chemotherapy treatments. In November, 1991, Holly had a “limb resection,” in which doctors replaced her cancer-ridden femur with a steel rod.

After a remission that lasted nearly a year, Holly relapsed this summer. A septic infection--her eighth since being diagnosed--sent her back to CHOC 11 weeks ago, and as December dawned, she came down with pneumonia.

Holly was heavily sedated but conscious enough to see Santa Claus on Christmas. Over the past few weeks, she has spent only a short time awake each day and has communicated needs such as “wet cloth” and sentiments such as “I love you” through flash cards carrying pictures and letters.

“We’re talking about a child that suffered a tremendous amount--more than most people could even fathom,” Karen Keuthan said of her daughter. “You have to sit by her bed to even understand it.”

Before she got sick, Holly was an athletic girl who adored horses, jumping rope, dance and gymnastics. She attended kindergarten at Del Obispo School in San Juan Capistrano and returned there for part of first grade. Since her sickness, she has focused on other interests, such as her dog, Todd, and the television show “Full House.”

The Keuthans attended a “Full House” taping and the cast gave Holly an autographed photograph and videotapes of all the episodes.

Other stars, including singer Gloria Estefan and Dizzy Reed, the keyboardist from Guns ‘N Roses, have taken time to call or visit the little girl during her illness. Hundreds of other people who read her story in the newspaper have sent letters, cards, gifts and donations.

Besides her parents, Holly is survived by her brother, Scott, 9.