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IC NEWSLETTER -
SUMMER 2010 7
At times she gets really tired and doesn’t
want to go to school. Other times she can’t be
bothered to play or eat. Other times she feels
queasy. Sometimes her hair falls out in class.
She doesn’t like that. But her friends at IC pick
it up for her.
Only a few weeks ago, Daniella was celebrat-
ing her 6th birthday with her friends.
There was no warning of what was coming
ahead. Her energy was high and her appe-
tite great. In fact, she was a little too fond of
sweets which is why perhaps she was develop-
ing a small ‘tummy’ or so thought her mother.
Unbeknown to them, Daniella was a ‘ticking
time bomb’, as her mother puts it.
It was a simple fall that saved her life. She
tripped and fell as she played in her home.
A short while after, Daniella vomited several
times. Her parents took her to the emergency
room just “as a precaution” recalled Asfour.
It was the doctor’s face which gave it away.
“Just tell me,” Asfour told him. “I can take it.”
And he did. The ‘tummy’ turned out to be a
2kg tumor in her kidney which was pressing
against her diaphragm. Without surgery and
treatment, Daniella would die in two months.
Asfour felt her world collapsing. She stared at
her child in fear. But then, she heard her own
mother’s voice in her head. “You can do it, Car-
la, you can do it.”
At 17, Asfour fell from the fourth floor of a
building. Her prognosis was bleak. Doctors
predicted that she would either die or be-
come a paraplegic.
“No, she won’t,” said Asfour’s mother firmly.
“She will get through this.” Asfour did. After a
year of intensive rehabilitation, she learned to
walk again. Asfour turned to the doctor
“Daniella is going to make it,” she told him de-
terminedly. “She will get through this.”
Daniella underwent an operation and the kid-
ney was removed. The chemo sessions began
shortly after and will continue for another year.
A native of Guatemala, Asfour felt alone. She
longed for her mother and sisters.
“I felt that I couldn’t do this alone,” she said.
But as the news spread about Daniella, throngs
of well wishers – IC parents, teachers, admin-
istrators, and friends - filled the halls of the
American University Hospital for days on end.
“The support I received has been amazing,”
she said. “I don’t think we would have made it
without them. I never really expected to have
such a big family.”
Doctors predict that Daniella will make a com-
plete recovery. The grateful Asfour family now
spends a lot of time at the Cancer Center creat-
ing arts and crafts activities for the young pa-
tients. We are fortunate,” said Asfour. “We have
been given another chance with Daniella. I am
so thankful. Daniella is our miracle child.”
Once Upon a Drawing by International College
KGII/GS students is on sale for 20,000LL at the
Preschool office. All proceeds go to the Chil-
dren’s Cancer Center.