Expressions of Success
A miracle for Zoe
The story of Zoe begins in 1992, when an eight-pound girl
was born at term following an uncomplicated pregnancy, labor, and delivery.
But it was immediately obvious that something was very wrong. An enormous
tumor on the left side of her head forced Zoe's ear to face forward, distorting
her features.
The baby's parents were unable to take care of her, and the county took over as guardian. Zoe was transferred to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where Wolff M. Kirsch, MD, FACS, chief of neurosurgery, headed a team of specialists to determine how they could help the stricken infant.
Team members from eight specialties went into action. They noted that the lethal mass was pressing on the brain, allowing it no room to grow.
"The tumor was enlarging daily, and the scalp was starting to break down because of the rapid expansion," explains Dr. Kirsch. "We knew the tumor was exceptionally vascular and its bulk was consuming a large amount of Zoe's blood supply from her heart. We were still uncertain as to what nature this tumor might be, but knew we had to decompress her brain."
The team recognized that surgery was necessary and planning meetings were held to discuss the strategy of performing the tremendously risky surgery.
When she was eight days old, Zoe was brought into surgery where the team, led by Dr. Kirsch, began their fight to save her life.
Dr. Kirsch removed what he could of the tumor, but had to leave several large areas of the tumor, now identified as an infantile fibrosarcoma--a rare tumor which closely resembles its more aggressive counterpart, the adult fibrosarcoma. Then Robert Hardesty, MD, chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery, began the difficult task of putting Zoe's head back together.
When Zoe was one month old, she was ready to leave the hospital. Jean and Kyle Steensma did foster care for high-risk infants and received a call from a social worker asking if they could take Zoe.
When the Steensmas first took Zoe home, it looked like she could have all kinds of residual problems. Her eye was turned in, she had facial palsy, and one ear canal was collapsed. For the first four months of her life, she slept about 22 hours a day. But when Zoe was awake, she was always developmentally right on target.
"In the beginning, we came to Loma Linda for MRI scans of Zoe every month," says Mrs. Steensma. "I had bonded with Zoe right away, and it was so hard on me. She would be in this room -- in this machine -- all by herself while the scans were made, and I could not be in there with her. The staff was extremely supportive of me, helpful and encouraging, giving me an appreciation of what she'd been through, and how far she had come."
The scans continued to show the two large pieces of tumor that could not be removed during the surgery. And then, when she was six months old, the MRI showed that the tumor had just disappeared.
"I had never encountered a tumor like this," says Dr. Kirsch. "It looked malignant at the outset--but to have it spontaneously disappear was something I was not used to. Everybody was astonished and surprised that it was melting away before our eyes! When we started hitting the literature to read about this tumor, we found that this tumor has a history of spontaneous regression."
Dr. Kirsch and Antranik Bedros, MD, division chief of pediatric oncology hematology, told the Steensmas there was a 50-percent chance of recurrence of the tumor in the first couple of years, and if it recurred, the mortality was very high.
"This was also the point in time when we had to make a decision about adopting Zoe or letting her be adopted by another family, " says Mrs. Steensma. "Because there was such a high chance of tumor recurrence, we wanted to be there for her. If we had to face her death, we would get through that somehow, too. We just couldn't let this special little girl go." Zoe was almost three years old when her adoption was finalized.
"Just the fact that she is alive, and that she is normal developmentally, is a miracle," says Mrs. Steensma. "Today, she is healthy, very smart, real spunky, and fully alert. We are thankful every day to the Lord above and everybody at Loma Linda because we realize it took everybody for this miracle to happen."
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