Ten-year-old Lilly Vanden 
Bosch of Dorr is recuperating today at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids after undergoing a bone marrow transplant.
Lilly was diagnosed two years ago with aplastic anemia, a rare blood disease that can be life threatening. She recently had a recurrence, which prompted the transplant.
The daughter of Tom and Meg Vanden Bosch, she will face weeks in the hospital and a long period of isolation ahead in her battle against a disease in which doctors say her immune system is attacking her bone marrow cells.
Other treatments were attempted after she was diagnosed, but there was no match found for her in her family two years ago. Because the disease came back, a global search was conducted and a woman in Europe was identified.
Dr. Beth Kurt, an oncologist and pediatric hematologist at DeVos Children’s Hospital, headed the search after determining a bone marrow transplant was the best option.
Lilly’s parents Saturday posted on Facebook: “Today has been much quieter and very peaceful following all of the hoopla of yesterday’s transplant events.
“Given everything we’ve had to individually process over the last 12 days, a day of cozy rest is much appreciated.
“This morning’s CBC (complete blood count) results showed that Lilly’s white count is at zero. This is actually a good thing because it indicates that her diseased marrow and immune system has been effectively eliminated.
“The next milestone for her is engraftment. Engraftment is the period of time it takes for yesterday’s donated stem cells to take up residence in their new home and begin cranking out a healthy supply of new red, white and platelet cells.
“The average time to engraftment is 14 to 21 days, but we’ve got running bets with the family and staff as to what day we’ll get there. At the moment, the range is 12 to 16 days.
“Hopefully, you have been able to capture the essence of this holiday weekend in some form or fashion. For us it has been a Thanksgiving we will never forget!”
PHOTO: Tom and Meg Vanden Bosch and their 10-year-old daughter, Lilly.
