Idaho's CMN Champion

Dayshia

Dayshia Elsworth had just returned from a family camping trip when she began having severe headaches and back pain. A trip to the emergency room brought the shocking diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a type of cancer that is rare in children. Dayshia was only three years old.

Her condition was further complicated by cancer cells in her spinal fluid, and she underwent three rounds of chemotherapy treatment at St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute (MSTI).

The treatments were successful, for a while. A follow-up bone marrow test showed that Dayshia had relapsed. Chemotherapy alone was not enough to cure Dayshia of her leukemia. After several additional months of chemotherapy preparation at St. Luke’s, she had a stem cell transplant in Salt Lake City. She returned to Boise afterwards for a long recovery with frequent treatments at St. Luke’s MSTI and Children’s Hospital for complications of her transplant, including infections.

Dayshia – like many young cancer patients – had a variety of complex needs requiring the skills of the multidisciplinary team of specialists who care for children at St. Luke’s. One of those specialists was her teacher at the Children’s Hospital School, which Dayshia attended for two years. Today Dayshia is cancer free, growing healthier and stronger all the time, and up to date in her school work.

Now eight years old, Dayshia is wise beyond her years and full of compassion. The Roosevelt Elementary second grader represented Idaho at the 2007 National Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) Celebration, where she served as an ambassador for children’s health care issues and helped raise awareness about the importance of children’s hospitals in the community. Dayshia and her family traveled to Disney World in Orlando, and to Washington, D.C., where she met President Bush and Miss America, which Dayshia says “was pretty cool.”

Dr. Eugenia Chang, pediatric oncologist and hematologist at St. Luke’s MSTI, is inspired every day by the courage and determination of kids like Dayshia. “It’s great to see the treatments come to fruition,” she says, “to see patients go on with their lives.”

And that is just what Dayshia is doing. Her immune system is 85 percent back to normal, and she is back in school full time and loving it. She is making new friends, and recently went to her first sleepover. She is looking forward to her ninth birthday party, summer camp, and a family trip to the Oregon Coast.