Mother’s Day weekend of 2018 marked the start of five-year-old Yemayah McNeil’s battle for life.  Her initial complaint to her mother was a headache, which was followed by several bouts of nausea and vomiting over the course of the weekend.  However, each time she would get sick, she seemed to recover quickly and rejoined her family and friends in the celebratory activities that had become a Mother’s Day custom in her large family.  The week after returning from a family beach trip, Yemayah’s “virus-like” symptoms persisted.  Her mother was called by the school three consecutive days to pick her up due to complaints of headaches, vomiting, and her wanting to sleep during class.  By day four of that week, Yemayah started exhibiting another alarming symptom.  She began to hold her head at a peculiar angle and staggered when she walked.  Convinced that the headache, nausea, and now imbalance issues were related to an inner ear infection, her mom took her to urgent care so she could be prescribed a round of antibiotics.  However, upon examination both ears were clear of infection and there was no fever to suggest any type of infection.  Uncomfortable with the lack of answers that she had been given, Yemayah’s mom insisted that something was wrong with her daughter and more testing needed to be done. The urgent care physician agreed with her mom’s concerns and immediately referred Yemayah to WakeMed Pediatric Emergency room.  On May 22, 2018, less than six weeks after, Yemayah’s father unexpectedly died from complication from diabetes, and a CAT scan revealed a large mass pressing against the base of her brainstem.  Yemayah was transported via ambulance to Duke University Medical Center that night and on May 23, 2018, she underwent a six-hour brain surgery to remove the brain tumor to save her life.

Three weeks following her brain surgery, the pathology report confirmed that not only was the mass that was removed from Yemayah’s brain a medulloblastoma, but it was also of the rarest type. The wingless (WNT) tumor accounts for only 11% of all medulloblastomas.  One month after Yemayah’s brain surgery, she began a clinical trial that would investigate the use of moderate chemotherapy only for the treatment of WNT tumors.  Because the subtype of tumor was so rare, she was only the fifth child to be entered in the trial.  The chemotherapy treatments were tough on Yemayah from the start.  The combination of chemotherapy drugs immediately took a toll on her body.  Hospitalizations that were anticipated to last for a few days often stretched into weeks.  However, her 3-month and 6-month MRIs showed no regrowth of tumor indicating that the treatment was effective for her.

In October of 2018, Yemayah’s mother was informed by her oncologist that two children had relapsed on the treatment protocol, therefore the clinical trial was being terminated and the five children that were still in the clinical trial would be transitioned to one of two standard treatments for medulloblastomas.  Given the choice of a treatment of radiation and chemotherapy or a treatment of intensified chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant, Yemayah’s mother chose the latter option to spare her young daughter of radiation.  Her new treatment protocol consisted of two induction cycles with intensified chemotherapy and one consolidation round followed by a stem cell transplant.

The intensified chemotherapy protocol proved to be challenging for Yemayah from the very start.  Her first induction cycle caused her to be hospitalized for 24 days in November of 2018.  Her second induction cycle caused her to be hospitalized for 23 days in December of 2018.  During both induction cycles, Yemayah suffered from life-threatening blood infections.

On February 26, 2019, Yemayah started her final consolidation round of chemotherapy.  On March 8, 2019, she received a life-saving stem cell transplant.  Unfortunately, instead of her recovery process being hastened by the stem cell transplant, Yemayah suffered from severe cardiac, renal, lung, and bowel complications, which resulted in her being transported to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) where she was on life support for a month.  By the grace of God, Yemayah recovered from septic shock and has since returned to the Pediatric Blood and Bone Marrow unit at Duke and she is slowly recovering.  She has made amazing progress, but has a long way to go.  We are confident that with time and continued medical intervention she will be able to make a full recovery.

While we can all agree that a healthy child is priceless, the cost of restoring a child with cancer back to health is astronomical.  The out-of-pocket expenses for Yemayah’s brain surgery, 47 weeks of chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy has become a tremendous financial burden for her mother.  Therefore, Yemayah’s mother has chosen to work with the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA).  COTA is an organization that helps children who presently need or who have had a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support.

How can you help?

Please make a donation to COTA today to help reach our team’s goal.  100% of each contribution made to COTA in Yemayah’s honor helps assist with transplant-related expenses.  Gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Check to see if your employer provides a matching gift, which is often accomplished by you submitting a short form.  Matching gifts are an excellent way to increase the power of each individual gift.  Click on “see if your company will match your gift” under the GIVE NOW button to learn more.

Please help spread the word.  There is an exponential level of power in friends telling friends and each one contributing even a small amount to COTA in Yemayah’s honor.

Please also consider joining “Yemayah’s Sacred Circle” — a select group of individuals who will work with our volunteers to reach the goal. To learn more, contact us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Prayers-for-Yemayah-19476264486335/

For more updates on Yemayah’s progress, follow and share on https://www.facebook.com/Prayers-for-Yemayah-19476264486335/

Thank you from Yemayah, her family and friends!