Baby girl from Kauai in need of bone marrow transplant
By Mika Miyashima
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KAUAI COUNTY, Hawaii (KITV) — A Kauai family is calling on the community to help find a match for their baby girl in need of a bone marrow transplant.
Seeley Borges was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, just before turning 1-month-old.
Her mother, Hayley Borges, said what started as a slight fever, turned into a visit to the emergency room.
“They ended up doing some labs and finding that her white blood cell count was 60,000. The normal range is 5,000 to 20,000.” Borges explained.
Seeley was immediately rushed from Kauai to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children on O’ahu.
She’s currently undergoing chemotherapy in the NICU.
“She’s actually just starting to lose her hair from the chemotherapy,” said Borges. “But, other than that she’s just so resilient, smiley, and happy. She’s a little fighter.”
Borges and her husband Shawn said it’s been challenging for her 7-year-old daughter Ainsley Jude, who can only visit Seeley on the weekends.
“She doesn’t realize why can’t my sister be here for Halloween, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas,” Borges explained.
Seeley is now in need of a bone marrow transplant, but her mixed background makes it that much more of a challenge.
“Already, there’s about 1 in 430 chance of finding a marrow match when you have blood cancer like leukemia or lymphoma,” explained Nainoa Wong, Be the Match Hawaii’s community relations manager. “Then, if you’re a mixed ethnicity, it adds on to the challenge and complication because the marrow matching is based on blood tissue type.”
Seeley’s situation sheds light on the need for more diverse donors.
The Borges ohana hopes to spread awareness, and is calling on those between 18 to 40-years-old to consider joining the Hawaii Marrow Donor Registry.
“You might be helping another kid, you might even help Seeley,” said Borges.
To join the donor registry, text SaveSeeley to 61474 or visit my.bethematch.org/SaveSeeley.
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