After fighting cancer, teen now wants to be a doctor
HARTFORD, CONN.
Evie Herman is one Make-A-Wish recipient whose wish could become her life’s work.
Evie, 15, of Westport, Connecticut, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was 6 – she is in remission – finally got to have her wish granted through Make-A-Wish Connecticut of Trumbull.
She visited Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital as the first day of her wish to be a pediatric oncologist. It’s what she plans to pursue as a career.
“When I was younger I had a lot of very different wishes and meeting celebrities and meeting the cast of ‘Hamilton’ was my first,” Evie said. “I’m actually really glad I waited and was able to have a wish now that I think it’s something much more meaningful.”
Evie is well on her way to her ultimate dream. She took chemistry and precalculus over the summer at
Greens Farms Academy and has a Massachusetts Institute of Technology logo on the back of her cellphone. She’s also on the Greens Farms rowing team.
“I was diagnosed when I was 6. And for the next couple of years after that I spent almost every day in the hospital surrounded by other patients and doctors,” Evie said.
“I think seeing these doctors and all the work that they’re doing and meeting patients younger than myself really inspired me to want to join the fight against cancer,” she said. “Knowing what patients go through every day really made me want to try and make it so that one day no child will ever have to go through that again.”
Her father, Laurence Herman, has no doubt she’ll realize her dream.
“She’s very driven to be a great student and become a doctor or researcher someday,” he said. “And if there is any silver lining to all this, which is that ambition and that goal.”
Evie’s father said she has a “great sense of humor and she works really hard. Our joke is that our teenagers work too hard.”
Evie, who has an identical twin sister, Danya, was diagnosed when her mother, Joanna Herman, was pregnant with her brother, Koufax.
“She was out of school for all of first grade,” Laurence Herman said. “I think about these kids who go through this. It’s really hard for young kids to fathom what they’re going through. It’s painful, treatments are not easy, but they build resilience that I don’t think other kids have.”
At Yale New Haven, Evie was able to view the research labs. She also visited Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and the Jackson Laboratory.
She also got a tour of Yale New Haven’s SkyHealth helicopter, though she didn’t leave the helipad.
Meanwhile, the highlight of her visit was meeting another leukemia patient. “He was going through something pretty similar to what I had,” Evie said. He had the same kind of cancer I had, so it was really interesting to see the other side.”
Kris Moran, director of marketing and communication for Make-A-Wish Connecticut, said children between 21⁄2 and 18 qualify for a wish if they are diagnosed with a critical illness. They do not have to be terminally ill.
“So many of them go on to live a long, productive, happy life,” she said.
The organization grants between 225 and 250 wishes a year but has a 400wish backlog because of COVID travel restrictions, Moran said.
Kailani Gadlin, wish coordinator, said Evie’s wish is one of a kind in that she wants to learn about something she intends to pursue in life. “We have had a couple of wishes to be a zookeeper or an animal researcher, things like that, but nothing as specific as Evie. This is her career path,” she said.
“Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common type of leukemia in children,” said Dr. Stephanie Massaro, medical director of pediatric hematology and oncology for the hospital.
“And our survival rates are greater than 92%, on the order of about 95 for patients who are considered standard risk. Standard risk means you’re diagnosed somewhere between age 1 and 10,” she said.
Treatment includes using chemotherapy to bring a patient into remission after one month of therapy, Massaro said. Another six to eight months of “very intense therapy” follow, and then two years or more of maintenance chemotherapy.
“That’s when children return to school, hopefully, and re-engage in a lot of typical activities,” she said. “But the majority of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are expected to do very well.
“We’re thrilled that Evie has done well,” Massaro said. “And we’re thrilled to see a majority of our children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia do well.”
Dr. Alan Friedman, chief medical officer for the hospital, said “We’re ready to hire her. She’s terrific.”
A pediatric cardiologist, Friedman said, “It is a clear reminder to me of why so many of us choose pediatrics as a career, because it’s about the next generation and how we help the world be better through the development of our kids and our own children.
“And just meeting Evie for a few moments, there’s no doubt in my mind that Evie and her generation are the key to our success, why we should all feel comfortable with where they will take us,” he said.