Chapter 46: The Fear

*Flashback*

"Sorry ma’am, your daughter has what we call Severe Myelodysplastic Syndrome." The doctor announced to Selen as she watched her three years old daughter from the glass in the door.

"This is a ticking clock disease. Children are born appearing completely healthy, but their bone marrow is programmed to fail as they grow."

Her bone marrow will spend the next few years producing malformed, ineffective blood cells. Around the age of 8, the disease is actively transforming into acute leukemia. Which is why we call it pre- leukemia."

"It is going to be especially hard for her because she needs these blood cells to fight her already existing struggle of being sickly," he added.

"How about my other two? Do they have it too?" She asked in fear.

"We have not been able to identify it in them. Maybe they do not, or maybe theirs is recessive, which means that there is a likelihood of it never showing in them but in at least one of their kids.

But for now, they are clean, and we hope it continues like that" the doctor said.

"Now we have drugs that can keep her going for the next few years, but I want you to have it in mind that at some point, her body will no longer be able to succumb to the medication.

And that will be the point where we will be needing external help- a bone marrow from a matching donor" he said.

He left her alone to sit with the news. What would she do? She had to listen to the doctor. She was not going to watch her child suffer in pain.

**

They spent the last few years depending on medication and with the expectation of when the day would come.

They had spent years on the bone marrow list, hoping that when the time would come when hers would have given up, they would have one that could save her life.

Selen was not a match and her boys were a half match but they were too young to donate. Even now.

Selen knew what the news from the principal meant. It meant that the time had come. But there was no matching bone marrow yet.

Selen ran as fast her legs could carry her immediately JK got to the hospital.

He carelessly threw the keys at a security guard who was trying to get him to park at a more suitable spot and ran in the same direction as Selen.

"My daughter, where is she?" She asked the receptionist immediately.

"Mummy?" A voice sounded behind her. She turned around to see the boys on a bench with their principal beside them.

She had followed the ambulance that carried Diane and followed JK ’s instruction on bringing them after their sister was taken inside the hospital.

"David, Daniel. Where is your sister?" She asked them as she hugged them both.

"She is being attended to inside. But the doctor’s will not say anything to anyone who is not a parent or legal guardian" the principal said.

She stood behind the kids as she spoke. Selen nodded, unable to form the words to thank her.

She ran inside and met with the second receptionist. "My- my daughter, where?" She stuttered out.

It seemed impossible, but she felt like her heart was beating faster as she got closer.

The nurse looked confused at Selen’s words. "Her daughter, Diane Williams just got admitted here. She is seven years old, passed out in school" JK translated for Selen.

"Oh, right here. Let’s go," the nurse said with urgency as she led them to the ward Diane was in.

"Doctor, these are the girl’s parents," the nurse said. She had assumed that JK was the father.

"Good afternoon, Mr and Mrs Carrero, your daughter is still alive and I hope that eases your mind a bit.

But she is not out of danger yet. Luckily, this is your hospital so it was not hard to find her medical records.

I understand that you are fully aware of what is going on because you have been preparing for this day that sadly came sooner than we expected.

We are still trying to reach her doctor, but he is off the clock. But the major thing here Mrs Carrero, is that we are going to be needing that bone marrow now.

Every minute we delay puts her further in harm’s way. We are also in talks with the data center to see if there has been any new matches within the past hour but so far, it is not sounding very promising" the doctor said.

"Her body demands an urgent transplant before the full-blown leukemia takes over.

According to the data, the boys are half matches. But we cannot use the little boys because in a situation such as this, an adult parent is preferred over a seven year old child.

A seven year old boy simply does not have enough bone marrow or blood volume to safely donate to a sister of the same size for a complex half-match procedure, whereas an adult parent has plenty of stem cells." The doctor explained to them.

"Can we see her?" JK asked. "No, we can not risk any infections. Her body is very fragile right now" the doctor said and excused himself and went back into the room her daughter was in.

"Selen? Hey look at me," JK said to Selen who was staring blankly at where the doctor once stood.

"I will get tested, and so will everyone I know until we get a match. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine," he said as he hugged her tightly.

Selen cried in his arms as the fear of death lingered around them. "That’s enough crying now, we have to make sure that my daughter finds a donor soon," she said and cleaned her eyes.

"I will start calling my contacts in other hospitals to communicate with yours so they can get the data and look for a match" JK said and walked away.

Selen took her phone out of her purse and called the only other person she believed cared for her.