Healing Amanda

Amanda at Children's Oakland
wearing a silly hat.

Amanda is cured of cancer and
is now a thriving 8-year-old.

Just two days after her sixth birthday, Amanda was found unconscious at the playground during kindergarten recess after having a major seizure. She was rushed to the ER where a CT-scan detected a large mass on the right side of her brain. Doctors referred her to Children’s Oakland.

Amanda was diagnosed with brain cancer. Five days later, she underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy. She then received a transplant of her own bone marrow stem cells, which cured her cancer.

Today, Amanda remains cancer-free. She is a vivacious
8-year-old who is thriving in school, loves going to dance class and dreams of being a veterinarian. Her battle against cancer did not start the day she was diagnosed. It began long before she was even born—decades ago—in a laboratory.

Finding a cure
Every day at Children’s Oakland, girls and boys are receiving treatments that were once unavailable. Survival rates for conditions like cancer, heart defects and blood disorders are better than ever. Research that began years ago is saving lives right now. And our research institute remains one of the top medical research centers in the nation.

Pioneering research for the future
Children’s Hospital Oakland also pioneered research in blood cell diseases and established the non-profit sibling blood bank—dramatically increasing the likelihood of curing children with diseases like sickle cell and thalassemia—and setting standards of medical care now used around the world. In fact, our research provided North America’s first cure of alpha thalassemia major.

Supporting Children’s Oakland will help us care for the thousands of children who turn to us each year needing the life-saving procedures that are currently available—like the bone marrow transplant that cured Amanda. It will allow us to continue to research treatments for the children who will come to us years from now, as we bring groundbreaking discoveries from the laboratory to a child’s bedside.

Healing children like Amanda doesn’t just happen. It’s the culmination of decades of research. Supporting Children's Oakland invests in the good health of our children for today, tomorrow and for years to come.