Amy amazed doctors to beat double death threat
A SCOTTISH schoogirl stunned doctors by battling back to health after a rare combination of two killer diseases left her only five days from death.
Amy MacDonald first developed a seldom-seen cancer of her white blood cells – which then triggered a disorder that caused her immune system to attack her own organs.
The two illnesses had only ever been seen together in three patients – all men over the age of 60 who did not survive.
But 11-year-old Amy astonished the doctors, who said she was the sickest child they had ever seen recover completely enough to walk out of hospital.
And yesterday her mother Kirsty said: ‘She’s my daily dose of inspiration. She just amazes me every day.’
Amy, from Aberdeen, had had enjoyed a four-mile forest hike when she developed a swollen lymph gland in her neck in February last year.
When it failed to clear up, her GP referred her to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Nursery worker Miss MacDonald said: ‘They did blood tests which came back saying her liver was not working properly, and she was put in isolation.’ Despite numerous tests and consulting experts at London’s King’s College Hospital, the cause of her liver failure remained a mystery.
After three weeks surgeons agreed to remove the swollen gland, but Amy’s kidneys were also shutting down. She began fighting for breath as her chest filled with fluid and, in a bid to keep her alive, she was sedated and put on life support.
The schoolgirl was then airlifted to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, where specialists warned she had just days to live.
Miss MacDonald, 38, said: ‘She was in a very bad way. They said if her body continued to shut down before they could get her to turn a corner, I’d be looking at not taking her home.’
Amy was eventually diagnosed with peripheral T-cell lymphoma, a rare and deadly blood cancer. It had also triggered secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare disorder of the
‘Words every parent longs to hear’
immune system causing it to attack healthy organs and tissue. ‘Her professor said it was the first case in the uK he had come across with both conditions at the same time,’ said Miss MacDonald. ‘That was unnerving because it meant they had not treated someone like that before.
‘But they fought really hard for Amy and she started chemo – but only at 10 per cent of the full dose, because her organs were still recovering.
‘After five days they turned off all the sleeping medicines and said: “This is make or break for her – she’ll either wake up or she won’t.” And she opened her eyes! It meant that her body had processed all the medication and that it was starting to function itself again.’
Earlier this year, Amy. now 13, was told the good news that she had no cancer cells in her body. Her mother said: ‘It’s the words that every parent longs to hear, that their child is in remission.’