Five-year-old Hannah Day, who was thriving after beating two types of cancer more than a year ago, flew to a Vancouver hospital from Victoria Wednesday because her cancer has returned.
On Thursday, she will have a bone marrow test at B.C. Children’s Hospital to determine what type of cancer she has.
“They know there is no cure, but they want to prolong this,” mother Brooke Ervin told the Times Colonist.
The family is about to launch what they suspect is Hannah’s last battle against the disease.
Depending on Hannah’s response to an initial 30 days of chemotherapy, the little girl could make it to her sixth birthday in August or even survive for years, Ervin said.
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Hannah was rushed to Victoria General Hospital Tuesday with a high fever. Tests confirmed she had cancer. The family had always been prepared that if the cancer returned, there would be no options left.
“There’s nothing, there’s no hope, there’s no miracle now,” Ervin said Wednesday morning, crying.
“They said, ‘We’re really sorry.’
“And then we talked about palliative care options. ... She was fine in March. She was thriving with no symptoms.”
Hannah and her mother were flown by helicopter to Vancouver. Her father, Robert Day, and the couple’s three-year-old daughter Hailey went by car. The family packed up their belongings.
However, once at B.C. Children’s Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, oncologist Dr. Rod Rassekh, told the family to wait for the results of a bone marrow biopsy and weigh options.
“He doesn’t want us to walk away now and say goodbye [after all that’s been done to save her],” Ervin said.
The doctor proposes giving Hannah 30 days of low-dose chemotherapy while home in Greater Victoria in hopes she may respond positively and the cancer recedes, Ervin said.
“It won’t cure it, but if she responds, they can put her on a low-maintenance chemotherapy so she can go to school and go home and try to be a normal kid — until she passes.”
Even if Hannah went into remission, the cancer would return, but some kids can live years on low-maintenance chemotherapy palliative care, Ervin was told.
“I can’t believe we’re here. I want her to live so bad.”
Blood tests in March showed Hannah was cancer-free. Her hair, lost through chemotherapy treatments, was back.
It’s been a torturous road for Hannah, diagnosed in 2012 with a rare cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma that attacks muscle tissue.
Hannah had no sooner gone into remission than she was diagnosed with chemotherapy-induced leukemia in December 2013.
On March 19, 2014, surgeons at B.C. Children’s Hospital performed a rare Hail-Mary haploidentical transplant, in which Hannah received stem cells from her mother.
Doctors had considered her cancer-free since that day.
In December, she had a catheter removed from her chest that had been used to administer chemotherapy and other drugs. She will now have surgery to have it put back in.
With cancer there is suffering, but it does allow for goodbyes, Ervin said.
“I get to tell her I love her every single day, and that I’m so sorry.”
Donations to help the family are being taken at any Island Savings in the name of Hannah Day or at gofundme.com/ugwf3s.
