A miracle. That”s what David and Renada Breeden prayed for when their 4-year-old daughter was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. And in the early hours of Thursday, March 1, they got one. Just not the one they had in mind.
A family friend bought Karlie Breeden a necklace with a circular medallion that read, “miracle.” Her parents knew she would need one to beat an April 28 diagnosis of what doctors told them was inoperable cancer.
“That was when we were thinking that Karlie was going to be healed, and she was going to be a miracle” said Renada, flipping affectionately through an album full of pictures taken at a full-time care and children”s hospice facility where Karlie spent her final two weeks of life surrounded by friends and family. “We didn”t realize what kind of miracle she was going to be.”
David recalls Karlie telling him God had told her she was going to save her family. “She put her hand on his chest and said, the reason this has happened is to save all of you, and I have a secret I can”t tell you,” ” recalls Renada.
The family never used to go to church, she added, but in the process of letting their daughter go, found faith.
Karlie”s parents describe her as a leader-type, strong and determined. A song made for her by the Songs of Love Foundation puts it well: “She loved makeup, nail polish, chewing gum, pink and purple, aquariums, the ocean, camping and Disneyland. She loved music, walking her dogs, four wheelers, horses and Harleys, too.”
During times when David was driven to agony as he watched pain wracking her tiny body, he recalls Karlie “sucking it up” and drying his tears.
She was always the first one up in the morning routing everyone else out of bed, David recalls.
“I think she knew that she didn”t have long, and that she needed to get as much in (her life) as possible, and that”s why she did so many things,” said Renada. In the past year, the Breedens took Karlie and her then 2-year-old brother Brody to Disneyland twice, and to Sea World to pet dolphins courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
On returning to their Cobb home tired from a trip to Disneyland one April night last year, Karlie fell down while racing her little brother to the door. It was one of those things that doesn”t strike a parent as a sign of terminal illness, and Renada didn”t connect it right away with her observations of mood swings and apparent balance problems over the past several months.
When they took her to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital the next day, they heard the words every parent dreads. “First they ask you to sit down, and you know something”s not right,” Renada said.
The Breedens were told Karlie had a mass on her brain stem and that the hospital would have to fly her by helicopter to Oakland Children”s Hospital. There was not enough room for Karlie”s family on the helicopter, and they were told to get there as soon as possible.
Karlie was immediately started on steroids upon her arrival. Her parents learned on April 28 that their little girl had diffuse pontine glioma, an aggressive, malignant tumor on her brain stem.
“Pretty much what that equals is the most aggressive (and) the worst tumor you could possibly have in the worst area in your brain,” said Renada.
It was located on the part of Karlie”s brain called the pons, which controls vital functions such as heartbeat, breathing and digestion, among others.
Pontine glioma grows between and around healthy brain cells, making it very difficult to treat. But not impossible.
Dr. Peter Sun, a neurologist at Oakland Children”s Hospital, attempted what most other doctors would not. He successfully removed a majority of the tumor, which blocked the flow of fluid down her spinal cord and pushed on her brain, threatening ultimately to kill her.
A cyst had formed around the tumor, a response the body produces to protect itself. The cyst threatened to do sooner what the Breedens had been told was inevitable.
“The way he described it was like mowing the lawn,” said Renada, recalling Dr. Sun”s explanation. “He said, I got as close to the dirt as I could without disturbing the dirt the dirt being the pons part of the brain, and the grass being the tumor,” she said.
The risks were loss of speech and movement, but to buy Karlie more time, the Breedens were willing to try. Karlie suffered none of the anticipated risks, prompting doctors around her to hail her a miracle.
“She was going to be the one child that survived this,” recalled Renada. Not only could Karlie talk and walk, but filled her bucket to the brim with the best of the trick-or-treaters less than a month later.
But Karlie wasn”t out of the woods. The Breedens noticed the behavioral problems coming back as Christmas approached.
The tumor had grown back bigger than before within a month. Remaining cancer cells were fed by the increased blood flow as her healthy cells attempted to heal themselves after the surgery.
Karlie”s doctor said he might have been able to remove the cancerous cells if he had been able to scrape the area, but that was not possible because of the nature of its location.
A Jan. 11 conference with Karlie”s doctors gave the little girl three weeks to live. She lived seven.
The Breedens were told about the George Mark House for children in San Leandro, which provides end-of-life care for children with terminal diagnoses. The family was joined there for the final two weeks of Karlie”s life by friends and family members, who stayed with her around the clock.
Karlie stopped breathing for the first time at 10:20 p.m. on Feb. 28, after her first concert where she saw the Doobie Brothers live at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa. Her parents took her to bed with them, as they were accustomed to doing, and snuggled her until she passed away at about four hours later the following morning.
“We”re in shock. You know you have to go on. It would be so easy not to go on,” said Renada. Looking at Brody, now three, he said she knows Karlie would want her parents to take good care of her beloved little brother.
“I”m doing laundry, and her clothes are still in our laundry,” said Renada, with tears rolling down her cheeks. “Knowing that I”m putting them away for the last time and that they”re not going to come back out, that”s hard.”
The Breedens want to pass along a message they believe their daughter wanted to send. It is a message of life and faith. “There is a higher power,” said Renada. “Without her we wouldn”t have found it.”
Karlie”s parents also want to spread the word about the George Mark House for children in San Leandro. It is a nursing care facility for children with special needs, or who have been given a terminal diagnosis, and provides living quarters and meals for the children and their families. It is run entirely on donations; the estimated overhead weekly cost for a family to stay there with their child is $16,000. Anyone wishing to help the family is asked to make a donation in Karlie”s name to the George Mark House, or to the Make A Wish Foundation.
Donations may also be made to a trust fund in Karlie”s name at Sonoma National Bank at 201 N. Main St., CA 95472.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
