This is Zaida Mattson. She is typical four-year-old girl, living in Boulder, Colorado with her father, mother and her older sister, Runa. She enjoys all the things that make a four-year-old happy, dancing, singing, cartoons and Disney stories. Zaida is indeed a very normal four-year-old girl, except for one thing. At the age of three Zaida was diagnosed with peritoneal malignant mesothelioma.
Zaida’s story
The fact that Mesothelioma is a mercy-less disease is widely known, but one question has to be asked: how could Zaida, a perfectly healthy three-year-old girl, be diagnosed with Mesothelioma, without a clear source of infection (asbestos)?
Doctors and experts can’t explain it. All we know is that Zaida is now fighting for her life, instead of playing with her friends. Watching her we can’t help feeling a deep chill up our spine, and all the sympathy in the world. We also realize that mesothelioma cancer is a real threat if it had developed in a three-year-old child. Until now, doctors were certain that the asbestos fibers need at least ten to fifteen years until they develop cancer. That appears not to be true anymore.
Treatment methods Zaida had to go through
These are the mesothelioma treatment methods Zaida had to endure:
- Firstly the doctors used a major four-hour long debulking surgery to remove major tumors
- Zaida experienced massive pain as a cause of withdrawal symptoms, after spending eight days with a ventilator and a very large dose of sedatives
- Chemotherapy cycles lasted for months, causing Zaida to lose her beautiful curls
- She had a second surgical intervention in order to remove tumor nodules, together with a heated chemotherapy perfusion. This lasted 12 hours
- The tail of her pancreas, spleen and gall bladder were removed along with the remaining tumors
- Another chemotherapy cycle was started
Nothing seemed to work, because the tumor was recurring fast, so doctors decided to operate on Zaida again. This was the third major surgery she had to endure, with the doctor finding hundreds of small tumors surrounding the abdominal cavity. The strongest chemotherapy drugs were not able to stop the cancer.
Even with all this, Zaida still has the energy to enjoy playing with her sister and parents in between treatment periods. Her parents know that there is still hope. They hope that the next treatment breakthrough will help cure their daughter.
Zaida’s mother, Nichol asked us to use her daughter’s story to help raise mesothelioma research funds. This will not only help Zaida, but every person diagnosed with mesothelioma, so don’t hesitate to help as much as you can.
The amounts we need are not at all large, and will help develop new and effective treatment methods to combat mesothelioma. Please contact us and find out you can help, today.