Two-Year-Old Finishes Inpatient Chemotherapy Treatments

Ring that bell, Avery! We are so happy to announce that Avery finished her inpatient chemotherapy.

This little girl brought smiles to everyone on the 5th floor of Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. Avery, who’s only 2, finally got to ring the bell, signaling the end of almost nine months of inpatient chemo treatments for leukemia.

Avery’s parents knew their daughter was a fighter the moment she was born. Born with Down syndrome, Avery was constantly fighting against the genetic odds that predispose her for leukemia.

“We knew this was always a possibility,” said Avery’s mom, Heather. “We’ve been seeing Dr. Emad Salman in the Naples Clinic since she was born. We knew when the numbers started getting high that it wasn’t a question of 'if' - it was a question of when.”

A few weeks before Avery’s 2nd birthday, she was diagnosed with leukemia and began treatments at Golisano. She spent her 2nd birthday in the hospital.

With Avery’s Down syndrome, the risk of infection is higher than normal. This led to being in the hospital for months at a time until her numbers recovered.

At the start of her treatment only one parent could visit due to COVID-19 visitation restrictions. Heather was at Golisano almost full-time, and Avery’s dad was home with her brother.

“We live here. We really do,” Heather said. “The team on this floor are our family. We love it here. They are all wonderful with her. We really can’t say enough about Golisano; we’ve been in and out since the day she was born.”

It was a special day as Avery moves into the maintenance stage of her treatment. Please help us in celebrating Avery!

If you would like to share your story, please reach out to Alyssa.Young@LeeHealth.org