Kati Sleeman
by Gale Robinson
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Kati Sleeman, the blind girl whose unfailing
humor and wisdom during her struggle with cancer tugged at the
heartstrings of everyone who knew her, is the brave little girl
we are honoring with a placque this year. She was four and a
half years old when she died of a massive tumor.
Kati was diagnosed with retinoblastoma—a
cancerous tumor of the eye—at 7 weeks old. Her right eye was removed
shortly
thereafter. She lost the other eye at age two and a half. After
a year of intensive chemotherapy and radiation, another cancerous
tumor appeared near her brain. It later spread into her bone
marrow, her spinal fluid and lymph glands, and eventually throughout
her body.
"About 90% of all children who have retinoblastoma
survive it," said Dr. A. Linn Murphree, M.D., an expert
in the disease who treated Kati. "Most victims are affected
in only
one eye," he said, "and generally that eye is removed and
sight in the other eye remains intact."
But in Kati's case, the cancer was particulary
vicious. Although doctors tried "everything that was available
to mankind" to put it in remission, Dr. Murphree said, it returned
with a tumor in the center in the middle of her forehead. Then
there was no cure. The tumor got so big that doctors were forced
to remove one of Kati's glass eyes.
Kati touched a lot of peoples lives, staff
people, fellow patients and visitors," said hospital spokeswoman
Maria lacabo. "I think that people who were involved with her
life learned a lot from this little girl." She touched lives
outside of the hospital as well, from prisoners in Vacaville
who sent her tape-recorded stories to a homeless man with whom
she corresponded.
In some ways Kati was a typical child. She
loved "The Wizard of Oz. and butterflies and her pet dog, Binky.
Yet throughout her ordeal, she amazed those who knew her with
her remarkable maturity and acceptance of her fate. She was often
funny, sometimes cantankerous, and exuded a warmth that even
strangers found irresitable.
Kati's family, which lives in San Bernadino,
had been exceptionally open with Kati about her condition and
its prognosis. Doctors said this helped Kati maintain her positive
outlook. "Among all the pain and suffering that she was
going through, I asked her what I could do for her. Kathy Sleeman
said. "And she said, ‘Just love me.'"
Typical of Kati was her response to an offer
by the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which fulfills the fantasies of
terminally ill children. She did not choose to visit Disneyland,
or to meet a celebrity or take a trip to Hawaii even though her
parents told her she could have any one of these things. Instead,
Kati elected simply to have a party at the hospital, with pizza
and balloons and all her friends around her.
"Despite all of the terrible physical
handicaps she had to deal with, including her blindness, she
never lost
her personality, she never lost her enthusiasm, her ability to
talk with you about things, to be Kati. Even to the very end," said Kati's doctor, Stuart Siegel.
The Society of CameraOperators honors Kati
Sleeman for her bravery and her enduring spirit which will last
forever. We made this placque to represent that spirit.
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