Reborn in Wuhan

By Elina Lee,Wang Siyuan

Reborn in Wuhan

By Elina Lee,Wang Siyuan

Jemaima Esteban and her family

J uly 22,2016,a blazing hot summer day in the City of Wuhan,capital of Central China’s Hubei Province.

Jemaima Esteban sits on her bed in a cozy ward of Tongji Hospital Optics Valley Branch.The sunlight warms her bed,and lightens her smiling face.Jemaima’s mother Rosanna stands by her,combing her hair gently and peacefully.The scene makes it hard to imagine that for years Jemaima had been a dying girl fighting with leukemia.

Calamitous years

Jemaima,a Filipino girl who immigrated to Dubai with her family several years ago,is now a sophomore in Miriam University,studying Applied Arts in Visual Design.She has two younger brothers.Her father,an engineer,is the only bread-earner in the family.

At nine years old in 2003,Jemaima’s left ovary was removed because of an ovarian tumor.It was deemed benign,and Jemaima did not do any further lab examinations and check-ups in the hospital.However,ten years later,unexpectedly, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer,and had to go through another two surgeries and four chemotherapy sessions for the treatment.Not long after that,she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in October 2014.

One cancer after another for a girl not even twenty years old.What a catastrophe thus far for both her and her family!

For a chance of survival,Jemaima needed to receive half-matched BMT(bone marrow transplantation).Since there were no medical specialists for this treatment in Dubai or her homeland, they went to India in search of a doctor.In February 2015,Jemaima’s youngest brother Jerwin donated his bone marrow to her.Although the eleven-year-old boy was frightened, he bravely offered to help save his sister’s life.When mentioning her courageous young brother,Jemaima could not help but shed tears of gratitude.

The operation almost bankrupted the family.After six months,however,they were informed during a return visit that the transplantation failed and leukemia had relapsed. Jemaima’s family once again fell into deep desperation.

A helping hand from Wuhan

Jemaima’s father Eduardo went online and tried his best to search all the pertinent information about how to cure leukemia.One day,he registered to the World Health Organization online and subsequently sent nearly 100 emails to relevant medical institutions all over the world seeking help.However,the feedback made him feel even more desolate.Most of the emails received no response,like a stone dropped into the sea.Some expressed helplessness.One response from America required Jemaima to pay 200,000 US dollars as a deposit before treatment,which was far beyond the family’s financial capacity.

Jemaima’s health condition became worse and worse day by day, and her family struggled and suffered while fluctuating from hopefulness to hopelessness.Six months later,Jemaima was almost ready for the worst when a flash of the morning twilight from China relit the family’s sense of hope.

One day in December 2015,Eduardo found online that Tongji Hospital in Wuhan had successfully cured leukemia patients with a new technological breakthrough.He immediately sent an email to Doctor Zhou Jianfeng,the director of the Hematology Department at Tongji Hospital,from whom,unexpectedly,he received a response the same day.

Dr.Zhou expressed that they might be able to help Jemaima with a new and effective treatment technology called CAR-T Cell Immunotherapy and the cost would be affordable.After dozens of emails back and forth between them,Dr. Zhou sent Eduardo an invitation letter.The visa to China was approved quickly.Less than one month later, in February 2016,Jemaima and Rosanna arrived at Tongji Hospital.

The breathtaking battle between cells

CAR-T,the treatment Dr.Zhou applied on Jemaima,stands for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Immunotherapy.At present,about twenty patients received this breakthrough treatment in Tongji and the effects have been quite satisfactory up to now.

Clinically,the CAR-T cell therapy is to cultivate the T cells in people’s blood outside their body. Then,the T cells will become CAR-T cells which can then attack the cancer cells.To put it bluntly, the ordinary T cells are now equipped with GPS and weapons. When the CAR-T cells are transfused back into the body,they will destroy the cancer cells until they all disappear.

According to the result of her physical examination,the doctors discovered that 90%of the T cells in Jemaima’s blood were from Jerwin.Considering her poor health condition after the chemotherapy, they decided to use Jerwin’s T cells directly.After two weeks of cultivation,the T cells turned into CAR-T cells successfully,making them qualified“warriors.”

On March 27,the doctors transfused the CAR-T cells back into Jamaima’s body.Two days after,Jemaima had a fever with a temperature of 39.2℃,which made the doctors equally worried and excited. When CAR-T cells start to attack cancer cells,they will release a large amount of inflammatory cells. So,the high fever meant that the CAR-T cells in her body had started to fight the cancer.

That period was crucial for Jemaima,since the high fever could have claimed her life.Seeing that she had difficulty breathing and her blood pressure dropped down,the doctors decided to keep her under observation all day long.They adjusted the drug dosage carefully to help Jemaima defeat leukemia.

After four days of struggle,the fever devil was controlled,and they became the winners.

Jemaima and Rosanna Esteban in her ward at Tongji Hospital

New hope bloomed

After the first phase of the treatment,Jemaima was in a much better health condition.According to the therapy plan,she needed to accept another CAR-T cells transfusion two months later.However,her visa would expire on April 19,so she had to go back to Dubai and apply for it again.During the two months, she kept sharing the results of her periodic blood tests with the Chinese doctors by WeChat and followed their advice.

On June 20,2016,Jemaima and Rosanna came to Wuhan again. This phase of treatment went smoothly;she didn’t have a fever this time.With a month passing by, all the cancer cells in her body disappeared,which meant she was clinically recovered and could enjoy long-term survival.

Jemaima really enjoyed the life in Wuhan.She made lots of friends among the patients.Because of her poor health,she was seldom exposed to the outside world,so she considered the people she met here as precious gifts.Her attending doctor,Luo Yi said he never failed to see smiles on the girl’s face.

Dr.Zhou told her that although there are no cancer cells left in her body,it does not mean this result would be guaranteed forever.It has nothing to do with heredity but more about her lifestyle choices.

According to Rosanna,Jemaima had some unhealthy habits.She was definitely a meat lover,while seldom eating fruits and vegetables. Far worse,she loved processed foods such as canned sausages, smoked meat and preserved fish,as well as eating lots of sweet foods like candy,cheesecake,chocolate, ice cream and popcorn.Jemaima did not like to drink water either. Instead,she loved soft drinks like Coke,Sprite and Fanta.Furthermore,she rarely did any exercise.

Being a survivor of leukemia,Jemaima now cherishes her life much more.To her,nothing is more precious than health and the gift of life. She decided to be more cautious of her daily life.She has already started to drink 3 liters of water daily and reduce chocolate consumption. She said,upon returning to university,she would do more exercises every day.

In the future,Jemaima wishes to work at a television station because she desires to learn more about the lives of others.Moreover,she hopes she can be a volunteer to help people in Africa,just like the people who have saved her life here in Wuhan,China.

From her latest email,we are glad to find that everything is fine with Jemaima now.As of November 2016,Jemaima is still on hiatus from university but she will be working alongside Rosanna.A friend recently offered Rosanna a business opportunity in the food and beverage industry,and Jemaima will be helping her.By keeping herself busy,Jemaima is also saving for her tuition fee and hoping to go back to school again.She also plays tennis twice or thrice a week on her Xbox.Since she cannot go play outside whenever she wants,that actually became her form of exercise. The treatment is working well.She is still having her routine blood tests regularly and the results up until now are all normal.