What Your Gift Can Do

Keanu Taylor

Pentaceratops, allosaurus, chasmosaurus… name any dinosaur species and Keanu Taylor can describe its appearance in detail, how it moved about and what it liked to eat.

So keen is his fascination with dinosaurs that Keanu illustrated books about them, and he is happy to flip through the pages to show you his work.

The books are also reminders of Keanu’s life a few years ago, when thoughts of dinosaurs provided a needed distraction. He drew these pictures while undergoing treatment for both sickle cell disease and leukemia.

A stem cell transplant would eradicate both diseases, and today, 11-year-old Keanu is the healthiest he has ever been. Through it all, the same caring team of medical experts at the Valerie Fund Children’s Center at Children’s Hospital of New Jersey (CHNJ), led by pediatric hematology/oncology specialist Peri Kamalakar, MD, has been behind him every step of the way.

Sickle cell crisis leads to devastating diagnosis
When Keanu was diagnosed in 2004 with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML), the most severe type of childhood leukemia, his family was stunned.

But this was not the first time Keanu faced a medical crisis. He was born with sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder that affects approximately 1 in every 400 African-American infants born in the U.S. each year. His older sister, Terri-Lee, also has the disease.

Since he was a baby, Keanu had been treated by Dr. Kamalakar at CHNJ’s Pediatric Sickle Cell Program. It was during a hospitalization at CHNJ for an unexplained fever and pain that his doctors discovered he had AML.

A brother’s life-saving gift
Treating Keanu’s leukemia became his doctors’ top priority, and they initiated the first of three courses of aggressive chemotherapy immediately. But the ultimate treatment for his AML would be a stem cell transplant after chemotherapy. In a stem cell transplant, “The patient’s own cells are destroyed with chemotherapy and the patient is rescued with donor stem cells,” explains Dr. Kamalakar.

With every AML diagnosis, the team at the Valerie Fund Children’s Center begins screening and identifying a potential bone marrow donor among the family members. Keanu’s brother, Roy Jr., then 11 years old, turned out to be a perfect match.

“It was a miracle. I went from looking at Keanu in the bed and thinking he could die, to feeling hope. He could fight this disease with help from his brother,” says Keanu’s father, Roy Taylor.

Keanu was referred to the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Hackensack University Medical Center. The stem cell transplantation was performed, and slowly his blood counts began to rise. After 45 days in the hospital he was discharged.

With the stem cells donated by his brother, Keanu was cured of both AML and sickle cell disease. On its own, Keanu’s case of sickle cell anemia was not severe enough to make him a candidate for a stem cell transplant, but the treatment for AML included the only curative treatment for sickle cell disease.

Caring staff help to ease emotional and financial burdens
As CHNJ doctors and nurses cared for Keanu’s physical condition, other members of the team helped the Taylors cope with the emotional and financial toll of Keanu’s illness. A tutor visited the hospital to help Keanu keep up with his school work. Child life specialist Trish Bayer was another lifeline to normal life, helping him overcome his fear of needles and keeping his mind occupied during long weeks spent in his hospital bed. “Trish is an amazing young lady. She steps up and takes a personal interest in the child,” Mr. Taylor says.

Social worker Heather Hoover was always there to answer questions. “She helped me from day one. I’d been laid off from my job and was in a hard place when Keanu got sick,” explains Mr. Taylor. With Ms. Hoover’s guidance, Mr. Taylor was able to secure health insurance to cover Keanu’s care.

‘Keanu is my hero’
It’s been more than two years since Keanu’s bone marrow transplant. He is nearly as tall as his older brother Roy Jr., and is now in the fifth grade at Cedar Brook Elementary School in Plainfield. He dreams of becoming an engineer when he grows up. But for now, he is enjoying a typical boy’s life, playing with the robotic dinosaur he got for Christmas, passing time with video games after he does his homework, and looking forward to trips to Missouri to visit his grandmother.

An emotional Roy Taylor describes the skill and caring of every member of the CHNJ team. Yet it is clear who he holds in the highest esteem. “Keanu is my hero. He made me look at life totally differently. It’s a whole new life, for him and me.”

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