Khaliah-Shay Kaulana Rapozo, the 11-year-old girl from Wailua Houselots, has amazed Kaua’i residents with her courage in handling leukemia first diagnosed when she was just three years old. In Seattle, she is astounding doctors by displaying incredible healing and bodily
Khaliah-Shay Kaulana Rapozo, the 11-year-old girl from Wailua Houselots, has amazed Kaua’i residents with her courage in handling leukemia first diagnosed when she was just three years old.
In Seattle, she is astounding doctors by displaying incredible healing and bodily acceptance of blood recently transfused into her.
Normally, engraftment, or the process of the transplanted blood to make its own new healthy blood cells once it is introduced into a patient’s body, takes three weeks or longer, according to doctors caring for Rapozo.
For Rapozo, the daughter of Valerie Gallardo and Curtis Rapozo, engraftment began 11 days after the transplant.
“They (her doctors) have not seen this happen with a cord-blood (umbilical cord blood transplant),” said Gallardo. “Doctors are pleased by Khaliah’s progress over the past few weeks,” and her progress represents what they call “the best-case scenario,” Gallardo added.
“Her blood counts continue to double, and keep increasing by the day,” said Gallardo.
Rapozo’s fifth-grade classmates at King Kaumuali’i Elementary School in Hanama’ulu are having a spaghetti fund-raiser dinner for her this evening at the school, with drive-through pickup and cafeteria dine-in options available.
Donations have been pouring in both to the school and to a fund set up through Bank of Hawaii, the Friends of Khaliah-Shay Kaulana Rapozo account people can make deposits into at any Bank of Hawaii location on the island.
Khaliah’s paternal grandparents, Fay and Mervin Rapozo of Kapa’a, are holding a fund-raising raffle of their own to help with the family’s living expenses in Seattle. They will have to remain there several more months before they get the OK from doctors to return to Kaua’i.
Gallardo and family wanted to thank all the relatives, family and friends who have helped to raise funds for the expensive leukemia treatment and other expenses.
