Twist of fate: Anna reconnects with the oncologist who saved her life

Credit: Mark Dela Cruz Anna Protsiou was five in 2002 when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. She remembers pain and the fruit-scented anesthesia masks that led her to stop eating cherries. She remembers hospital arts and crafts projects. What she barely remember is the pediatric oncologist who saved her life. She was a young girl then who didn’t speak English, moving with her family from their native Greece to be treated for a year at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Now, after moving with her family to Canada in 2014, she’s a 20-year-old dance student at the Eg. School of Contemporary Dancers/ University of Winnipeg and a contortionist with a rubber-band body. She’s ready to claim her history as her own, ready to move beyond photographs of the doctor and memories recounted by her parents, ready to take charge of her own health care. So Anna traveled to Boston to meet her physician, Dr. Lisa Diller, and learn about potential late effects of the high-dose chemotherapy, radiation and two stem cell transplants that eradicated her cancer after surgeons excised her tumor. “I don’t know if anything is enough for what Dr. Diller did for me,” Anna says. “Often it’s the parents who reach out. There is a special bond between the parents and the physician who worked closely together to get a young child through treatment,” Diller says. “To have a young adult reach out was very special.” Sitting in the clinic exam room, waiting...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Diseases & Conditions Our Patients’ Stories Research and Innovation Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Lisa Diller MD neuroblastoma Source Type: news