 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Melanie on Wink News (Fort Myers, FL)
WINK
EXCLUSIVE:
Local family hopes stem cells can save daughter
In a WINK
News exclusive, a Collier County family tells us their story of hope and
determination. They're taking stem cells from their infant daughter's
umbilical cord to save her older sisters life.
By Nick Spinetto, WINK News
COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. - "That's my favorite singer. I love Hannah Montana," said 6-year-old Melanie Canete.
On the outside, Melanie looks and acts like every other little girl. But on the inside she has a deadly bacteria preventing her lungs from working properly. This keeps Melanie from actually being like every other girl. "I can't go to school," she said.
Melanie is home schooled and can't go outside for long periods of times because she gets sick easily. She has such difficulty breathing, she relies on machines to help her breath at various times during the day.
"You
never know if they'll be a tomorrow. She looks fine, but if she gets sick,
the next day she could be dying," said Elisa Canete, Melanie's mom.
Elisa says Melanie got sick the day she was born.
"The day she was born was the first and the worst day in our lives. She was good when she was born, but a few hours later she was dying. It's so hard," Elisa said.
Photo albums with pictures of Melanie's early years, show she spent the majority of her time inside a hospital.
"Part of her family are people from Health Park because she had more pictures with them than anyone else in the family," Elisa said.
Family pictures line the living room wall. One face that's not up there yet is Angel's. Appropriately named, since the newborn was conceived with the intentions of breathing new life into the family.
"We are confident and believe the stem cells from her umbilical cord are going to save Melanie's life," Elisa said.
Right now, Angel's stem cells are being stored at a facility in Arizona. The cells will be used to repair the damage to Melanie's lungs. The procedure is still a year or two away, and will happen in another country because of the controversy surrounding stem cells in the United States. However, the Canete's don't believe the procedure is a bad thing. They say the it will do something great; give their daughter Melanie a chance to dream of life, outside the house.
"When I grow up, I'm going to be a rock star," Melanie said.