Even with everything our daughter has been through, she always has been a happy girl. 

Grace was born with Down syndrome, two months premature. At birth, she was diagnosed with transient myeloproliferative disorder.1 She began chemotherapy two days later and spent her first two months in the NICU at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital. 

Thanks to her wonderful doctors and nurses, we were able to bring Grace home before the end of the year — only to have her readmitted the next summer for eight months of treatment after she was diagnosed with a second cancer, acute myeloid leukemia2. Though her case was complicated, Dr. Seth Rotz3 and his team were brilliant, seeing Grace through 10 spinal taps to deliver her chemo. 

Bringing Grace home healthy later that year was like a miracle, as was her reaction two years later when she returned to Cleveland Clinic for cochlear implant surgery to treat her severe hearing loss. Her wide-eyed smile was truly amazing, like Grace. 

When you have a child with as many things going on as Grace, you can’t do it all on your own. She’s not just our kid; we share her. It takes a village to give her everything she needs, and we couldn’t do it without Cleveland Clinic. 

She’s doing great these days. My hope is for her to find independence and confidence to know that she can do anything she puts her mind to. 

 

Grace Rosian is 5 years old. Her mother describes her as “the perfect combination of princess and warrior."

Photo of Grace Rosian

Photo: Courtesy of Valerie Revell-Rosian

Notes

  1. A form of leukemia common in babies with Down syndrome.
  2. Another form of leukemia, rare in children, that starts in the bone marrow and quickly spreads.

  3. Seth Rotz, MD, is a pediatric oncologist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s.