2 Yankton-area Kids Get Marrow Transplants To Fight Cancer

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) — In a hospital located more than 300 miles from Yankton, two area youth are currently living just doors apart. Ariyanna Miller and Tomas Rokahr have both recently undergone bone marrow transplants and now are waiting for the results.

Miller, a student at Alcester-Hudson High School, underwent her transplant this month, while Rokahr, an 8-year old originally from Yankton but now living in Sioux Falls, underwent his surgery in December.

Both now are playing a waiting game to find out if the transplants fighting their cancers will be successful, the Yankton Press and Dakotan ( ) reports.

The 17 days since Ariyanna Miller’s transplant have not been easy.

But Ariyanna is not one to give up.

“She is a fighter,” Ariyanna’s mother, Samantha Miller, said. “She continues to surprise us every day with her strength. She has never questioned why this happened to her or felt sorry for herself. She has always had faith and knows this is God’s plan for her.”

Since Ariyanna’s transplant on Feb. 3, Ariyanna has battled numerous medical challenges such as sepsis, a life-threatening complication of an infection.

“Because of the infection, she was intubated the morning of (Feb. 10) because she was in critical condition,” Miller said.

A CT scan of Ariyanna showed fluid around her heart and lungs.

“On Thursday, Feb. 12, they thought they were going to have to go to a last line kind of ventilation because she was on 100 percent oxygen and still failing,” Samantha said.

She wrote on Ariyanna’s Caring Bridge website that her daughter was struggling to breathe so the doctors decided to intubate her to give her body time to get better.

On Feb. 17, Samantha wrote that Ariyanna was improving slowly and that tests showed signs that her lungs were starting to heal.

“They just extubated her today (Feb. 18),” Miller said. “She did very well with that. She has a bi-level positive airway pressure again, so she is still sedated. But at least she is breathing on her own.”

Miller said this was a huge step for Ariyanna because the hospital didn’t expect to extubate her until 21 to 24 days after her transplant.

“She really turned it around,” Miller said.

Right now, the Millers are playing the waiting game. The family won’t know if Ariyanna’s transplant has worked until sometime next week.

“We won’t get the numbers until she is about 21 days post-transplant,” Samantha said. “We are only at (17) now. We think the transplant went well but right now she still has no white count. Once the marrow starts working and the white cells come, they will do a bone marrow biopsy again. They will also do a DNA test on that marrow and see if it is the donor cells or her cells.”

Until then, Miller is staying in a room at the Ronald McDonald House and at the hospital with her daughter while her two sons and husband live at home.

“My boys were here all last week when Ariyanna wasn’t doing so well,” Miller said.

Ariyanna will be in the hospital at least 100 days post-transplant.

“We just ask for prayers,” Miller said. “We also want to thank everybody for everything. We have an amazing community, friends and family that have helped us out with more than anyone could imagine. We don’t even know how to thank everyone for all the things that they have done for us.”

On Feb. 3, the day of Ariyanna’s transplant, more than 300 people participated in a balloon release in honor of Ariyanna.

“It meant so much to her,” Miller said. “It meant so much to all of us.”

Friends, family, strangers and celebrities also used social media to help support Ariyanna, even though she was hundreds of miles away, by using hashtags like #ariysarmy and #ariyannasfight.

The community has continued using social media to show Ariyanna and her family their support.

In addition, Miller said that Alcester-Hudson and surrounding communities are “painting” the town orange in honor of her daughter.

“They have orange ribbons and orange on their windows, sidewalks and trees,” Miller said. “It’s pretty amazing all the support. We are blessed.”

It took a battle for Tomas Rokahr to get to his bone marrow transplant, which took place Dec. 17.

More than two years had gone by since his original diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Oct. 3, 2012. During that time, he underwent chemotherapy, went into remission for 18 months, then this past summer relapsed and underwent a second round of chemotherapy and radiation.

At that point, Tomas’ family was told he would need a bone marrow transplant.

Originally scheduled for the end of October and then November, Tomas had to be 100 percent cancer-free before the transplant could be completed.

“Finally in December, his counts were where they needed to be and the transplant could be completed,” said Tomas’ dad, Nick Rokahr. “The transplant only took 20 minutes, but since then, we have been in isolation in the hospital for all but maybe 72 hours.”

The transplant, which Tomas began himself, was a success.

“Right now, he is 100 percent cancer-free,” Nick said. “He is 100 percent engrafted, but that doesn’t mean the cancer won’t come back. There is a 66 percent chance it will come back. This was never an ultimate fix, but rather the best option right now.”

According to Nick, Tomas had three infections since his transplant. He noted each time Tomas was released from the hospital, an infection forced him to return.

“We just have to be extra careful,” he said. “We have to nip any infection or virus in the bud. Any fever of higher than 100 degrees forces Tomas to return.”

The infections Tomas has been fighting are those that cling to the plastic in his central lines. Because of that, both of them have since been removed, one just this week.

“It isn’t all bad,” Nick said. “After his transplant he bounced back beyond everyone’s expectations and exceeded hope. His immune system is bouncing back. One of the issues we ran into was that in trying to fight the pain and nausea he was feeling, we actually ended up overdosing him.”

Nick explained that, after consulting with Tomas’ doctors, they decided to quit all pain and nausea medications.

“It was the best decision we could have made,” he said. “Tom went through a day of withdrawals, and then everything was normal.”

While Tomas has had his ups and downs, Nick said his son is a normal kid and is just tired of being in the hospital.

“We are just battling,” he said. “There is a lot of monotony, hoping and wishing going on. The goal is that by day 100, we will be home. Day 100 is March 25.”

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Information from: Yankton Press and Dakotan,