Downey family searching for bone marrow donor for daughter
Photo Courtesy of Healing 4 Jazmyne Facebook page
A Downey family is desperately looking for the perfect fit to provide a bone marrow transplant to save their little girl’s life.
While most children her age are just starting to be able to explore and discover the world around them, 2-year-old Jazmyne Zequeira-Guillen has been isolated within hospital walls.
It began in late October of last year, when Jazmyne’s mom, Ivett Zequeira-Chandler, took her in to the doctor for a swollen eyelid. It wasn’t long before other medical issues started to show.
“They gave her antibiotics and that went away, but along the way she started having severe diarrhea. Then when I went back the following week...she was having high fevers that would not go away,” said Zequeira-Chandler. “…The doctor finally reviewed everything from the previous weeks and put it together, and she just didn’t like it.”
The doctor sent Jazmyne to the Emergency Room, where the ugly truth finally started to show.
“They did everything they could do in the ER…. they ended up saying that we need to admit you so we can run tests come tomorrow morning, which consisted of MRI’s, CT Scans, everything possible.” said Zequeira-Chandler. “As we’re waiting in the hospital, team after team is coming in making their observations. After a while we’re catching on…the main oncology team came in and gave us what they knew, and what they knew is she had Leukemia.”
Specifically, Jazmyne was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), which is extremely rare for her age group.
Zequeira-Chandler describes the famiy’s time in the hospital like being in jail.
“She learned how to walk in a hospital. She has experienced only hospital life,” said Zaqueira-Chandler. “That whole interaction that you’re excited at that age where they’re mobile to go ahead and be able to be free to do things, but we’re confined.”
“You see the nursing staff. You don’t see any other kids because she’s susceptible to getting sick from other kids, so she doesn’t see kids...simple things as just feeling air on your face, she doesn’t get to feel that. Things that we probably take for granted every day when we step outside. Rain, she hasn’t felt rain.”
Photo courtesy of Healing 4 Jazmyne Facebook page
To make matters worse, after enduring chemo only to ultimately relapse, Jazmyne now needs a bone marrow transplant. Finding a match is proving to be like finding a needle in a stack of needles.
“The science behind a bone marrow match is really new territory to me…I thought it just consisted of matching blood,” said Zequeira-Chandler. “Within the blood, everybody has different characteristics, and that goes according to your ethnicity…She’s pretty much Cuban, and in the registry there is no match for her with the characteristics she needs.”
In order to try and find match for her daughter and potential future patients, Zequeira-Chandler is reaching out, hoping to educate and inspire more of the Hispanic community to register as donors.
“The Hispanic community is not aware and does not know what this means,” said Zequeira-Chandler. “People are oblivious to what it entails. I think that they really fear ‘Oh it’s a big surgery,’ and it’s not a surgery; it’s a simple procedure. Number one to get registered it’s just a simple swab of the cheek…You see a lot of blood drives, but you don’t see swabbing for bone marrow or for platelets which are very unique characteristics in themselves.”
“Obviously Jazmyne needs a donor, but I’m not just thinking about ourselves; I’m thinking about the next family that has to go through this, who will go through this.”
The City of Downey has also stepped in to try and find a match for Jazmyne, allowing for the family to have a presence at certain upcoming city events, including the rooftop Havana Nights Concert on August 16.
To keep informed on Jazmyne’s story and updates, visit Facebook at Healing 4 Jazmyne. A link to a Go Fund Me page can also be found there.
Those also interested in potentially donating bone marrow to Jazmyne or any other patient in need can join the National Marrow Registry at join.bethematch.org/hope4jazmyne. Signing up takes only a few minutes.