Damn.
Double Damn.
Jasmina Anema, the Manhattan girl whose brave battle against leukemia captivated the city and inspired thousands to become bone marrow donors, has died. She was just six years old.
Jasmina's year-long fight against an especially fatal form of the disease ended at 10:55 p.m. Wednesday night at NYU Langone Medical Center, her mother, Thea Anema, said.
Suffering from a fever and shortness of breath, Jasmina was admitted to the hospital Monday morning. She was diagnosed with pneumonia in both of her lungs, and her condition deteriorated rapidly. Before noon on Wednesday, doctors moved Jasmina into the ICU because her breathing had become so labored. She only got worse.
She became well-known when Rihanna publicized her story, as did some other well-known celebrities.
Hope seemed lost until early May, when a near-perfect donor match was finally found.
The resulting transplant was a success, but Jasmina's good fortune did not last.
A biopsy in September revealed that her cancer had returned. By that point, Jasmina was also suffering from graft versus host disease, a common complication in bone-marrow transplants in which the new cells attack the recipient's body.
I fell in love with this little girl when a friend pointed me to her webpage last summer at http://www.oneforjasmina.com. Go there now and read about her visit with President Obama.
She inspired thousands of people to become bone marrow donors.
Including me.
