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Ed Yeates ReportingA deadly villain should have snuffed out the life of a 13-year old teen from Cedar City, but it didn't! Trying to remove it from her body should have paralyzed her, but it didn't! Now, this week, is the final chapter, and it too is looking good.
Last year, Christy Standler went through a long, delicate surgery that actually kept the chief surgeon awake the night before, worrying whether he could pull it off. Afterwards, she had a hard time standing or walking on her own.
Christy Standler: "And so then I had to crawl to the chair because on the table beside the chair was my cell phone."
Like some tentacled alien, an insidious cancer called Ewing Sarcoma had wrapped itself around the spine, crunching at the very heart of her nervous system. The surgical team got almost all of it, but it wasn't over yet. Potent chemotherapy and radiation came next.
Nancy Standler, M.D., Christy's Mom: "The amount of radiation that's needed to kill the cancer is very close to the amount of radiation that could paralyze her again."
Eight steel pins holding her fragile spine together distorted the radiology scan, letting cancer fragments hide in the shadows. But the radiologist experimented and came up with a new wave length that had never been tried before. The radiation treatment worked.
Now, almost a year later, Christy's back at Primary Children's Hospital for her last chemotherapy. Not only is there no sign of the cancer, she walks normally with no paralysis. Sure, this last chemo is making her nauseated. She's temporarily lost her hair, but the battle is almost over.
Christy Standler: "Now I feel great because I don't have any more chemo left."
Mother: "The list of people who saved her life is just remarkable."
Richard Lemons, M.D., Ph.D: "We knew Christy had a super spirit and a great drive and an inner motivation to do well and to be cured of this tumor."
The freckles, the smile, say it all. Like other patients in remission,doctors will monitor Christy over the next five years. Her case will also be followed into adulthood under a new expanded program at Primary designed to search out long-term side effects.
