Bobby’s Story
Bobby was 30 hours old when they found his white blood count to be 97,000. He was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and at 4 weeks he was diagnosed with Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML), a rare form of Leukaemia, so rare that there was a 1 in a million chance that Bobby would get it. Sadly he was that one.
At 3 months he had his frist round of chemotherapy and at 4 months he under went a bone marrow transplant. Bobby became sick after the conditioning chemotherapy and then picked up an infection.
At only 5 months old, his little body could not fight the infections. He became septic along with Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Veno Occlusive Disease (VOD) of liver. He was in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for 2 weeks.
Finally, when all efforts were exhausted, we withdrew support and he passed away in my arms.
Bobby was one of the youngest children to ever be diagnosed with JMML and was the youngest to ever have a bone marrow transplant in Atlanta. JMML is so rare there is no treatment for infants nor are there doctors who know how to treat an infant’s symptoms.
My only hope is that they will learn from Bobby’s case and will eventually be able to help another child diagnosed with JMML.
Bobby touched so many lives, and I was blessed to have had him the short amount of time that I did.
Shelley Campbell www.babybobby08.com
