Kauai baby recovering from cancer returns to Hawaii after more than 8-months away
By Mika Miyashima
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HONOLULU (KITV) — A Kauai baby on the road to recovery against leukemia, is finally back in the islands after spending more than 8-months at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
10-month-old Seeley Borges and her parents touched down on Oahu on Sunday, greeted by Hawaiian Airlines agents with pikake lei.
“We were so shocked because we came home so quickly, nobody really knew, not even our family, we didn’t really have time to say,” explained Hayley Borges, Seeley’s mother.
Seeley was discharged from Seattle Children’s on Thursday, and will now be under the care of Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children.
She’ll go in for visits twice a week, beginning Wednesday.
Doctors declared her free of cancer cells in her body, after a successful bone marrow transplant in March.
“She did really good,” said Borges. “We had a lot of scares, neumatosis and sepsis. Battled a bunch of things that came from the transplant and chemotherapy, but she’s doing good now so Kapiolani said bring our baby back, Seattle had to let us go.”
Borges said while her family’s extremely grateful for the hospital staff in Seattle, there’s no place like home.
They hope to return to Kauai full-time, after a follow-up visit to Seattle Children’s in March.
The Borges ohana is teaming up with local nonprofits to host a cancer awareness and craft fair, on October 23, at the St. Louis Alumni Clubhouse on O’ahu.
“We just put an application online for vendors, there’s a $75 booth fee, and that fee will be entirely donated to HUGS Hawaii and the Hawaii Children’s Cancer Foundation,” said Borges.
The goal is to help raise awareness about how hard it is to find a bone marrow match for mixed races like Seeley, and encourage people to register as donors.
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