March 7: Abigail faces another setback: Cancer treatment

Associated Press - Ap

Abigail Taylor

Abigail Taylor, the 6-year-old pool victim who lost part of her small intestine, is being treated for a rare cancer, likely a result of her organ transplants.

By MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune

Last update: March 21, 2008 - 10:44 AM

Abigail Taylor, the Edina girl who was seriously injured in a wading-pool accident last summer, is now being treated for a rare form of cancer linked to her treatment, her father said.

Six-year-old Abigail has been hospitalized at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha since December, when she received a triple-organ transplant in an attempt to repair the damage from the accident.

Since then, she has suffered one setback after another, including 16 more surgical procedures, said Scott Taylor, her father.

Last week, she began chemotherapy after her doctors concluded that she had developed a cancerous condition that, on rare occasions, is triggered by organ transplants. The condition, called PTLD (posttransplant lymphoprolipherative disease), affects certain blood cells.

"They can't diagnose it with 100 percent certainty," Scott Taylor said Thursday. But after tests pointed in that direction, "they started the chemotherapy this past weekend."

Abigail's ordeal began on June 29, when she inadvertently sat on an uncovered drain in a wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park.

The suction ruptured her skin, and pulled out 21 feet of her small intestine.

Her injury made national news, prompting calls for tougher pool-safety laws.

On Wednesday, her dad testified before a Minnesota Senate committee on a proposal to require safer drains and more inspections at public pools.

A federal pool-safety law, prompted in part by her injury, was passed by Congress in December on the day of her surgery.

Abigail received a new pancreas, liver and small bowel in a nine-hour operation on Dec. 17.

Scott Taylor said that Abigail remains on a ventilator and is heavily sedated but that she has been doing better since the chemotherapy began.

She is expected to remain hospitalized in Omaha for some time.

Maura Lerner • 612-673-7384

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