| Graduation Year | Class of 1984 |
| Date of Passing | Aug 30, 2009 |
| About | Hello, this is Sarie Morrell, also known as "Sarah" during highschool, class of 1984. It is with a heavy heart that I am reporting that our daughter, Natalie, died on Sunday, August 30, at 12:43 p.m. Exactly one year ago Natalie was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer that only strikes 150 or so teens in the US each year. Ironically, it is also the disease my brother died of at the end of his treatment, due to a massive infection following a bone marrow transplant, in 1987 at age 15 when I was 21. Some of you whom I kept in touch with after high school knew about this. The disease is non hereditary, and is completely random. The odds of it happening twice in one family are billions to one. The doctors were stunned when they diagnosed Natalie and found out about my brother having had it too. There are only 6 documented cases since the disease was diagnosed in the 1920's of familial cases of Ewing's Sarcoma - my brother and daughter are two of thos cases. Natalie's cancer was in her pelvis, affecting the left pelvic bone, her left front hip bone, the hip socket, and the femoral ball head (52 square centimeters of bone in all). She also had a soft tumor the size of a large orange. The chemo worked, the tumor was 100% dead, the bone clean of cancer. Natalie's journey was rough, tougher than most for those with the same disease, and she suffered some terrible setbacks and infections that delayed treatment for weeks at a time, so when they told us that the tumor and bone were 100% cancer free and the tumor 100% necrotic (dead) it was astonishingly good news. Most cases only have 90% success at that point. The disease grows for 2 years before it is detectable by pain, and is usually explainable by growing pains, sports injuries, etc. Then it takes about 6 months before the pain gets so bad that a diagnosis is made. The treatment for Ewing's is the worst there is for any cancer, as the disease is so resistant and they must treat the entire body as minute cells can lay dormant in bone, creating resistance to chemo, then come back later. She had 7 rounds of chemo out of 14 total, then the surgeons removed her left pelvic bone, her left hip, and her femoral ball head. They spared the leg, and she could walk with crutches. Amazingly, she regained a great deal of function, and her figure looked "normal", even the huge 2 1/2 foot scar was barely perceptable. She could have worn a bikini at the beach and looked great. She was such a trooper, and very brave, a legend in the hospital for her positive attitude and will to overcome the cancer. She touched many people's lives, and was always polite and interested in other people/patient's lives in spite of her immense suffering. She and I spent 250 days and nights together in the hospital - I never left her side. She was cancer-free, and was starting her 11th round of 14 cycles of chemo (they always have to do chemo after surgery regardless of how good the surgical outcome, in case there are any floater cells). Suddenly, on day two of a two-day chemo course she developed Acute Respitory Distress Syndrome, and spent the remaining 6 weeks on life support, intubated, and in a medical coma. She could hear us, respond in some ways, and would become agitated if I left the room, in spite of the immense amount of coma drugs. After one week of intubation in a medical coma, she was off for one week, things looked better, then she got worse and had to be reintubated. Gradually her lungs became worse, we had many teams of doctors, and no possible source of infection could be found. She blew 3 holes in her lungs, and finally her lungs became incompatible with life as they were not able to absorb enough oxygen even with 100% oxygen assistance. We had to make the horrific decision to extubate her and set her free from pain on August 30, 12:43 p.m., as it was clear she could never recover and the lack of oxygen (which dipped below 60% absorption into the bloodstream for two days) that caused the part of her brain that makes up who we are as people, our souls essentially, to drift away. (It only takes 3 minutes of 0% oxygen absorption to cause this type of brain damage. Who she was, what made her "Natalie", was gone. They said she would have felt a hypoxic high, then drifted of pleasantly into a coma of her own, on top of the medical coma, but could still feel pain, etc.. She was functionning on primal brain reflexes during the last day of her life. It was awful to have to make the decision to set her free, but she died instantly, and the doctors said she almost beat us to it, five minutes later and she would have died on her own, so we were lucky to be able to have a very dignified death experience with her, give her hugs, kisses, and surround her with family and love. We have 6-year-old twins, who help us with their joy and tenderness, but the pain of having lost Natalie is so unbearable. She and I were very close, closer than most mothers/daughters. My husband Andy and I, as well as my parents, are suffering deeply from this loss. She got many gifts from incredible people - including Miley Cyrus, a phone call from Corbin Bleu of High School Musical fame (45 minutes!) and personalized DVD shout-outs to Natalie, as well as scripts from Miley, and TWIILIGHT from the movie studio (well before it even came to theaters) along with TWIILIGHT collectible materials like a treasure chest, music box, and t-shirts. The greatest gift came from the surf company QUICKSILVER, which is located near our house in Huntington Beach. As a surprise to Natalie, they had in-house artists create one- of- a kind crutches and two walkers that they hand painted and designed for her. And we were invited to tour the headquarters, one of the coolest places to work I have ever seen. My mom lived with us for the past year to care for the twins when I was at the hospital and my husband at work, my dad came as often as he could, and our community and school helped with meals and errands, and just plain love and support. Natalie had many, many friends who also helped her. Though she couldn't see them in person very much, they texted, etc., all the time. Natalie's absence is so noticable. Every inch of our home reminds us of her. It is so unfair to lose a child, especially one so close to being done with treatment and who was cancer free. And what she died of was not related to any treatment - it just happened due to a small infection that came and went so fast we couldn't diagnose it or fix it. Please pray for Natalie and my family. And if you want to read more about her story, and see pictures of her, log onto www.carepages.com. You register with your email and a password, then you can search by patient. Her name is Natalie Sanchez, age 14, Huntington Beach (that is the profile you want to look for). She was at CHOC hospital. I would love to hear from people - it would help me to know what is going on with my classmates lives. I wish you all the best. Sarie Morrell |
