Susan Webb
Sponsor: Custom Installations

Oregon
Kiau Mai Anh (Age 8)
Genetic Blood Disorder

Seven years ago and thousands of miles away in Vietnam, a little girl named Kieu was born with a rare blood disease, Beta Thalassemia Major. Back in the United States, a family in Eugene, Ore., heard of this sweet little girl and, armed with knowledge of Kieu’s condition, chose to adopt her and help overcome her medical hurdles.

In September 2002 Kieu began her road to recovery with the first of many blood transfusions and in 2004 continued these treatments at Sacred Heart Medical Center. She has since had 60 separate blood transfusions. Unfortunately frequent transfusions caused iron to build up in Kieu’s organs, especially her liver. She began several new drug treatments but Kieu’s liver was still on its way to failure.

After learning that a bone marrow transplant would cure Kieu’s disease, the family began the arduous process of finding a donor of the same ethnicity. Prepared to wait several years, they were shocked to find a match after only two months—a real miracle.

Today 8-year-old Kieu is happy and healthy and lives every moment to the fullest extent possible. She is thrilled to finally be big and healthy enough to play the trumpet, one of her life-long dreams.