What Hope Makes Possible

Kali's Story

When a child is fighting cancer, hope is more than a feeling. Hope is having the right people, the right technology and the right care ready at exactly the right moment—and having it close to home. For Kali, donor generosity helped make that possible.

When Everything Changed

Kali wanted what most kids want: to play volleyball, go fishing and boating with her family, swim, spend time with friends and simply be a kid. Then, at the end of fourth grade, everything changed.

After concerning lab results initially left her family without clear answers, Kali’s parents knew something wasn’t right. Kali’s mom, a nurse herself, asked for another opinion. The response was immediate: pack your things. They are waiting for you at Studer Family Children’s Hospital in Pensacola.

The next day, Kali underwent a bone marrow biopsy and lumbar puncture. Her family received the news no parent is prepared to hear: their daughter had cancer.

Care Close to Home

Under the care of pediatric oncologist Dr. Sang Park and the pediatric oncology team, Kali began treatment. Her port was placed and chemotherapy started. School became homebound instruction. Hospital stays replaced volleyball games and summer days on the water. Her family learned a new rhythm of treatment, lab work, hospitalizations and the constant fear of infection. 

Through it all, they found something else: a community of people ready to surround them with care.

At the Bear Family Foundation Pediatric Oncology Center for Hope, a center made possible entirely through donor generosity, Kali and her family found physicians, nurses and Child Life Specialists who came to know not only her diagnosis, but her. They knew how to make her smile. They knew the things she loved. They cared for the child beyond the cancer.

For Kali’s family, receiving this level of specialized care close to home mattered. They could remain connected to the community that surrounded them, and her mother could continue working while Kali received the care she needed in Pensacola. 

Kali’s mother remembers the people throughout the hospital who became part of their world. “They all know her,” she said. “The nurses and Child Life Specialists are amazing.”

When Kali Needed More

Then, months into treatment, Kali became critically ill. Her chemotherapy had left her with virtually no immune system. An infection took hold, and within days her condition deteriorated rapidly and her oxygen levels fell. She was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit and eventually intubated, but even 100% ventilator support could not provide her body with enough oxygen.

Her parents soon faced a decision they never imagined they would have to make. Kali needed ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), an advanced form of lifesaving support used when a patient's heart and lungs can no longer adequately sustain the body.

Dr. Carrie Garrison, Pediatric Intensivist and Pediatric ECMO Medical Director, and the pediatric critical care, surgical, and ECMO teams were prepared to provide this extraordinary level of care right there at Studer Family Children’s Hospital. 

The odds were frightening. Her mother remembers being told they might be 50/50, or less. But there was hope.

Because donors had already invested in ECMO, the lifesaving technology Kali needed was already there—ready when her life depended on it. And the specialized team trained to use it was there, too. Kali did not have to leave her community to find the technology or expertise that could give her another chance. 

There was no time to wait. Her care team moved quickly. Within hours, Kali was receiving ECMO support.

One Moment at a Time

Her family began taking the journey one moment at a time. “She made it through that,” her mother remembers. “And then she made it through that.”

There were setbacks and frightening complications. Kali required dialysis through the ECMO circuit. Her care team navigated bleeding risks, platelet levels, anticoagulation and countless clinical decisions. Again and again, there were moments when her course could have gone another way. But her team never stopped.

Kali spent 36 days on ECMO and approximately 70 days in intensive care. She was intubated and placed on a ventilator April 28th and shortly after placed on ECMO April 30th. ECMO support was able to be weaned off on June 4th and her breathing tube and ventilator were finally removed on June 16th. Then came another extraordinary milestone: she could talk. She could swallow. She was still Kali.

Her mother calls what happened remarkable. She also knows exactly what the care team gave her family. “They saved her life.”

For weeks, nurses remained at Kali’s bedside around the clock. Her mother remembers their compassion, gentleness and calm, and the confidence she felt knowing that, even during the most frightening moments, everyone knew their role and was prepared to respond.

The Chance to Simply Be a Kid

Eventually, the little girl who had spent months inside hospital walls got to go home, and her community was waiting. Police officers escorted Kali home as her church family, volleyball teammates, neighbors, friends and family lined the way to welcome her. She was going home surrounded by the community that had prayed, supported and hoped alongside her throughout her journey. 

Today, Kali is beginning to understand just how extraordinary her journey has been. But what she wants next is beautifully ordinary: “Mom, I just want to do kid stuff,” she told her mother. “I want to be a kid.”

She wants to swim. Get back on the boat. Spend time with friends. Go to football games. Do the simple things childhood is supposed to be made of.

Because Hope Was Already Here

Kali’s story is about exceptional medicine, an extraordinary care team and one remarkably resilient child. It is also a story about philanthropy being there before the crisis ever arrived.

For Kali’s family, the experience has changed how they think about generosity. They have seen firsthand what happens when a community invests in its children. Now, they want others to see and hear the moments of hope within this journey—and understand what generosity can make possible for the next child and the next family.

Donors could not have known Kali would one day walk through the doors of the Bear Family Foundation Pediatric Oncology Center for Hope. They could not have known that months later, her heart and lungs would need the support of ECMO. But they gave anyway. They invested in a pediatric oncology center so children facing cancer could receive exceptional care close to home. They funded advanced ECMO technology so that when a child reached a critical moment, her care team would have another way to fight for her life.

And then one day, a child named Kali needed both.

Because donors had already said yes, her care team could say, “We can do this here.”

This is what hope makes possible. A little girl getting another chance to swim. A family getting to bring their daughter home. A highly specialized care team having lifesaving technology at the ready when minutes matter. And a community whose generosity became something far greater than a building or a piece of equipment.

It became the care that was already there when Kali needed it most. And today, that generosity is helping give Kali something beautifully ordinary: the chance to simply be a kid.