wwltv.com <\/p>\n
Posted on June 15, 2012 at 5:53 PM <\/p>\n
Updated yesterday at 7:35 PM <\/p>\n
Meg Farris \/ Eyewitness News Email: mfarris@wwltv.com<\/a> | Twitter: @megfarriswwl <\/p>\n NEWORLEANS- She was only in kindergarten when doctors gave her family the bad news. <\/p>\n Now she's one of the first in Louisiana to try a new treatment for people who get gravely ill after a bone marrow transplant. <\/p>\n The last three years of Sami Smith's life have been physically and emotionally painful. <\/p>\n \"I literally, they try to scare me and they can't, because I've been through the scariest thing that you can,\" said Smith, 9, of Ponchatoula. <\/p>\n Her mother noticed she was napping more and bruising. Doctors diagnosed AML, a type of leukemia or blood cancer. Had she not gotten to the doctor then, she would not have made it much longer. A Child's Wish sent her to Disney World. The good news, one of her teen sisters Mary Hannah, 13, was a good bone marrow match. The transplant worked and Sami was cancer free. <\/p>\n Then devastating news. Sami got a condition called GvHD (Graft-versus-host disease) where the new marrow launches a painful attack on the recipient's body. It's the leading cause of transplant-related death. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Read the original here:<\/p>\n Stem cell treatment offers hope to those sickened after getting bone marrow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" wwltv.com Posted on June 15, 2012 at 5:53 PM Updated yesterday at 7:35 PM Meg Farris \/ Eyewitness News Email: mfarris@wwltv.com<\/a> | Twitter: @megfarriswwl NEWORLEANS- She was only in kindergarten when doctors gave her family the bad news. Now she's one of the first in Louisiana to try a new treatment for people who get gravely ill after a bone marrow transplant. Continue reading