Devon Still is urging all of us to keep his 5-year-old daughter in our thoughts. On Friday he tweeted, “I need some prayers sent up for Leah tonight! We hit a pretty serious complication from the stem cell … ”
Just two months after announcing that she’s in remission from cancer, the Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle says tha tLeah has had a setback, with her liver affected by the chemotherapy, the Associated Press reports.
“They caught it early so hopefully it gives the doctors a better chance of stopping it from getting aggressive. As you can imagine our minds are all over the place but we’re going to try and remain positive!” Still’s tweet continued.
Leah captured many hearts when doctors diagnosed her cancer last year and Still’s story went viral. Doctors removed a tumor from her abdomen and started chemotherapy to kill cancer cells in her bone marrow. She finished her latest round of chemotherapy in April and went through a stem-cell transplant in May.
Still’s message Friday indicates that Leah was diagnosed with hepatic veno-occlusive disease, or VOD, a complication that affects the liver in patients who have undergone stem-cell transplants.
The Washington Post says the prognosis for VOD varies greatly, but it can be resolved when caught early.
Read more at the Associated Press.