2014 CMN Miracle Child Bella Hernandez

Five year old Isabelle “Bella” Hernandez has a bubbly personality. She loves to sing and dance, and enjoys fashion. She has blood cancer. Bella's battle began almost in 2011.  She was dancing when she complained to her mother, Amanda Livingston, that she felt exhausted. 

Then the high fevers started… "lots of them...up to 104 degrees." Amanda began taking Bella to the pediatrician almost every two weeks for the same symptoms. During one visit, the doctor noticed Bella had bruising on her chin and little spots on her chest.

 

Livingston took her daughter to the hospital for blood analysis. In October 2011, Bella was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Amanda's initial reaction was complete denial. “How can my kid have this?” she asked. “My whole life changed” she said, holding Bella tightly in her arms. “I stopped working the next day. I was going to take care of my daughter no matter what, but I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve never known anybody who has gone through any of this.”

 

Bella’s life changed dramatically. She swapped her classroom for a hospital room, and instead of spending her days with her classmates and teachers, Bella now had nurses and doctors in her daily life. While her friends were learning how to read, Bella was learning about bone marrow and chemotherapy treatments. “When somebody coughs on me or sneezes on me, I get sick,” said Bella while sitting in an outpatient room at El Paso Children’s Hospital.

 

When El Paso Children’s hospital opened its doors in February 2012, Bella began receiving her treatment in the new Hematology/Oncology unit, located on the 7thfloor. Today, Bella knows practically every caregiver who works in the HEMONC Unit.

Bella is anything but shy and every Thursday Bella comes to El Paso Children’s Hospital for her weekly chemotherapy session.  She greet everyone from nurses and doctors to other pediatric patients and parents. She always comes in singing and dancing and showing everybody her new dance steps. “In the beginning, it was a struggle to get her in the hospital", said Bella's Mom. "Now she trusts these nurses and she is not afraid anymore.”

 

Although Bella has made several friends at El Paso Children’s Hospital, she feels a special bond with one nurse in particular, Pediatric Registered Nurse, Amanda French.“When I met Bella she was dancing in the hallway, she has a very loud outgoing personality” said French. “The majority of the pediatric patients we see through here have leukemia.  They go through a course of a three year treatment so we see them very often and we become very close to the families." Pediatric leukemia is one of the most common cancers for children, however, thanks to clinical trials run through COGs (certified Children's Oncoglogy Group) like El Paso Children's, the cure rate is now over 90 percent.

 

Bella's hair is growing back and so is her spirit. “Once we got through the second phase of chemotherapy, the life started coming back in her," said Livingston. “It’s almost been a year, and now she is back to her normal self.” To help Bella cope with hair loss, a side effect of her chemotherapy treatments, Bella's mom started designing fashionable hats for Bella to wear until her hair grew back again.

 

Today, Bella is in remission and she's helping other sick children cope. "I tell other kids to be brave when they get their finger poked. Don't be afraid, everything will be O.K