Ziva

Ziva’s fight began the moment she entered the world. Following a traumatic emergency C-section, she had to be intubated and rushed to the NICU. But Ziva is a born fighter. She was breathing on her own just hours later and left the NICU in five days. Two days later, the pediatrician said, “Congratulations on your healthy baby girl!”

But she was oh so wrong.

Ziva grew normally at first. She had minor reflux and hated tummy time, but she learned to roll over and hit her milestones. At her 4-month checkup, she weighed 13 lbs. 6 oz. By her 6-month well-visit, she still weighed exactly 13 lbs. 6 oz. Because she was meeting all her developmental milestones, the pediatrician wasn’t immediately worried.

The Fall That Changed Everything

Ziva never made it to her next well-visit. In July 2025, she accidentally fell head-first from her high chair onto concrete. Her parents rushed her to the Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH) ER in Little Rock. While the CT scan was negative for a skull fracture, the ER doctors found something else, something that required a neurosurgeon. They wouldn't tell us anything and scheduled an outpatient MRI for August 1, 2025.

That August 1st MRI was agonizing. The neurosurgeons looked at the scans and were acting absolutely giddy, but again, refused to tell them anything, telling them to follow up in clinic. On the drive home, a nurse named Patricia called from Hematology/Oncology. They knew what Oncology meant.

They met with the ACH oncologist on August 4th and immediately requested a transfer to St. Jude. While driving home, they called they family back because they had appointments in Memphis on August 6th. St. Jude repeated the MRI, and this time, they actually showed it to explain the findings. They explained that the tumor was highly vascular, and that she would die on the table if they tried to remove it right away.

The Battle Begins

Ziva spent her 9-month birthday in the OR at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital for an open brain biopsy and her first blood transfusion. Proving her resilience, she was sitting up eating Cheetos in the PICU the very next day like nothing had happened! A week later, the official diagnosis appeared on MyChart: ATRT-SHH (Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor).

She completed two rounds of SJYC07 "induction" chemotherapy (Methotrexate, Cisplatin, Cyclophosphamide, and Vincristine). The doctors described her tumor as "necrotic" (dead), and they were able to completely remove it right before her first birthday! At that time, they also placed an Ommaya reservoir for IVT chemo, allowing Ziva to heal enough to travel back to Little Rock to celebrate turning one.

Setbacks & Resilience

The Ommaya port, however, turned out to be a train wreck. Ziva's family spent Thanksgiving back at Le Bonheur for a surgery to fix it, and went back again in December to have it completely removed. To rule out hydrocephalus, she underwent three CT scans before returning to St. Jude for two more rounds of chemo.

During those two months, fluid built up in the area damaged by the Ommaya port, causing her entire brain to shift past the midline. Remarkably, Ziva was completely asymptomatic, and there was no cancer. It was back to the OR for a VP shunt. Once that healed, she conquered 30 rounds of focal proton radiation and proudly rang the bell. Her post-radiation MRI came back cancer-free!

The Final Stretch

To secure her victory, doctors recommended two rounds of "consolidation chemo" (IV Topotecan and Cyclophosphamide). It hit her like a freight train. Her ANC dropped to zero for a week, and all her beautiful hair regrowth fell out again.

Today, Ziva has just one final round of chemo left before her end-of-treatment MRI on June 22, 2026, almost a year to the day since her high chair fall. Because of the grueling treatments, she stopped hitting her walking milestones, so physical therapy is her main focus right now. She didn't really learn to eat solids during chemo, as it's hard to learn when everything tastes bad and makes you vomit. Once they finally get to go home for good, teaching her to eat real food will be their next big milestone.