HOUSTON – The Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center has patients from all 50 states and from 56 countries.
One of their current patients is from Ukraine.
Kateryna Zadvornova and Vadym Zadvornov chose to move to Houston just before the war in Ukraine began. After starting school here, their five-year-old daughter, Yeseniia, was diagnosed with cancer.
In July, the children’s hospital in Kyiv, where their daughter would have sought treatment if they never moved here, was bombed.
There have been many instances where her family feels like Yeseniia just happens to be at the right place at the right time.
“The first six to seven months are pretty intensive and then they get into the last about two years of therapy where mostly you’re taking pills every day,” explained pediatric oncologist Dr Zoann Dreyer. “Overall, childhood cancer cure rates right now are 80%. In patients with leukemia, like Yeseniia, it is 95% and higher... when we say cure, we mean cancer never comes back. They grow up and rule the world, which I think is what she’s going to do.”
When Yeseniia started school in the U.S. her parents though she was getting sick with normal childhood viruses. When she was more pale than usual her pediatrician ordered a blood test and instructed them to get the ER.
Their lives turned upside down almost immediately.
“Since the moment she came to that pediatrician’s office until Dr. Dreyer came to us with final diagnosis was 23 hours,” Vadym Zadvornov said.
The family spent the night in the ICU and when they drew back the curtains in the morning, their room was coincidentally located right within view of the Ukrainian flag that flies outside of the hospital.
“I just turned to Vadym and I asked him, ‘Do you see the exact same what I see? Do you see the Ukrainian flag?’ It was like really some kind of miracle for us. I don’t know, maybe like a good sign,” Kateryna Zadvornova said.
Maybe it was a good sign after their terrible night in the ICU because now, Dr. Dreyer is confident Yeseniia will have a long, healthy life.
“I think from the moment I met her in intensive care unit, it’s like, this is my kind of girl!” Dr. Dreyer said. “She comes from a really tough background, I think, before they came here, and she talks to me about what things are going on in the Ukraine and that’s a lot to be on the shoulders of a young girl. But she’s just she’s so, she’s quite insightful and quite, quite inspirational.”
The Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center diagnoses more than 600 new cancer patients each year. Since survival rates are so exceptional, there’s a long-term survivor program where they monitor long-term effects on the heart, liver and kidneys.
Yeseniia will be able to join that program in about four years.