Starting her new life
Kaley Dugger got a cake Tuesday – her favorite kind, made out of Oreo-cookie ice cream. And there were balloons and plenty of hugs.
Like the perfect hostess, the 10-year-old Spokane girl chatted up well-wishers and smiled for pictures during the party in her honor at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital.
It was a sight worth celebrating.
Three years ago, nobody was certain Kaley would make it out of Sacred Heart alive.
A swift-moving bacterial infection, meningococcal disease, tore through her small body. The disease destroyed her kidneys and forced the amputation of both of her legs below the knees, along with many of her fingertips.
But this morning, after her send-off party, Kaley is scheduled to be on a plane with her mom, dad and older sister, bound first for Washington, D.C., and then to Disney World in Orlando.
On the trip, Kaley will represent Washington as a child ambassador for the Children’s Miracle Network Champions Across America program. She’ll join kids from every state who have faced severe medical challenges.
“She’s resilient,” said Kirsten Carlile, director of Children’s Miracle Network in Spokane.
The child ambassadors will spend time on Capitol Hill, stressing the importance of children’s health care, and they might – if all goes as planned – get some face time with President Bush.
(Though, truth be told, Kaley said she’s “not necessarily” a huge fan of the commander in chief right now).
She is, she said, most looking forward to all of the roller coasters at Disney World, except the ones that go upside down.
“I’m excited,” said Kaley, a fourth-grader at Jefferson Elementary School. “I’m happy to represent Washington.”
Kaley was actually selected to be an ambassador last year. But she was still on kidney dialysis and awaiting a transplant, so she couldn’t get the doctor’s OK to travel.
On Thursday, though, she’ll celebrate her one-year anniversary with her new kidney, which she received at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
“The kidney is doing great,” said her mom, Debbie Dugger. “She’s doing great. She’s very strong.”
It’s been a bumpy road, though.
In May 2005, Kaley fell out of her wheelchair and broke her leg, just as she was learning to use her prostheses. She got new prosthetics last June, but they caused a pressure sore on her right knee that developed into an infection, Debbie Dugger said.
She needed two surgeries on the area, but plans to try the prosthetics again soon.
But, just in time for a trip to Florida, “she just got permission from the doctors to swim,” her mom said.
Many of the people who took care of Kaley when she was at her sickest showed up at her bon voyage celebration Tuesday.
“We’ve seen this kill people real quickly,” said Dr. Daniel Brutocao, a pediatric critical care specialist who took care of Kaley in the early days of her illness. “It’s just a horrible disease. … This truly is the most terrible disease we see.”
Added the doctor, smiling as he watched Kaley enjoying her cake: “She’s such a delightful girl. This is the reward we get.”