Courtesy: Anissa Stopanski

By Jessie Weisner

GIRL BEATS ALL ODDS

21 month old Medicine Hat girl in the fight of her life

Jul 29, 2019 | 4:30 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A young girl from Medicine Hat had the fight of her life this summer, at one point, given four hours to live.

Although her journey still isn’t over, support from her family, the community, and a fighting spirit has helped her get through the worst of it.

Anissa Stopanski and her two daughters, four year old Aradene and 21 month old Layna were enjoying the summer with no worry in the world.

Courtesy: Anissa Stopanski

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However, in June, they had the scare of a lifetime.

They decided to make a trip to spectrum, but it was a very smoky day, and Layna had a coughing fit when they got home.

“I was out in the garden around 3:00 and my mum just started yelling ‘get in here, get in here somethings wrong’ and I get in and she could barely breath, she was gasping, and we got her to the hospital and she was already on a ventilator by 3:15, they were right on it,” says Stopanski.

Doctors originally thought Layna had pneumonia, but when treatment wasn’t helping, a doctor came up from Lethbridge to see her.

She continued to worsen, so Layna was sent to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

Following a CT Scan, it was discovered she had an enormous tumour in her chest.

“I think about 14 centimetres by 12 centimetres so it’s literally her whole chest,” says Bill DeRepentigny, Layna’s uncle.

“The arteries and the veins in her neck, they were all compressing, her face was swollen to the point where she couldn’t even see her neck, her eyes could barely open,” says Stopanski.

Anissa was told Layna was the sickest girl in Southern Alberta.

“I couldn’t believe when they said that, I’m like ‘this can’t be happening, like this isn’t real’,” she says.

At the time of diagnosis, Layna was given 72 hours to live and was started on chemotherapy. She wasn’t responding well, and soon after her time left was reduced to 12 hours.

“By the time we got there the doctor said they didn’t expect her for more than 12 hours, so I laid in the bed with her and she grabbed my hand, squeezed it so hard and I was like yeah she’s still stubborn,” says DeRepentigny.

Courtesy: Anissa Stopanski

After running more tests, doctors discovered it was a germ cell tumour, and started Layna on a different kind of chemotherapy.

Her breathing was even worse at this point, so doctors decided to do surgery to intubate her.

She was given a 20% chance of surviving surgery.

“Three hours seemed like a week, it just went on and on and on and then when the doctors came out, they all had big smiles,” says DeRepentigny.

Layna was successfully put on a ventilator, and she started responding well to the new kind of chemotherapy.

Courtesy: Anissa Stopanski

After a few rocky days in hospital, she shocked doctors with her resilience.

“As soon as she woke up she was right back to her little sassy self she was shaking her finger at the doctors,” says Stopanski. “She would pretend to be asleep when they would come in like ‘I can’t see you, you can’t see me, you can’t get me.’”

Layna was released from hospital on July 3, and has gone through four rounds of chemotherapy to shrink the tumour. She has a considerable amount of energy considering what she’s been through.

Courtesy: Anissa Stopanski

However, she still has two rounds of aggressive chemotherapy left, and likely a long road to a full recovery.

“It’s still really worrisome, it’s not over yet, she’s far from out of the woods yet but she’s doing amazing for where she’s at,” says Stopanski.

Anissa and Layna are still travelling back and forth to Calgary multiple times a month, but thanks to support from friends in Maple Creek, they haven’t had to worry about finances.

With a supportive community, a family that loves her more than anything, and an iced cream cone, Layna can get through anything.

“Every round of chemo, we expect she’s going to be sick or what not and she gets a little cranky but nothing an iced cream cone doesn’t cure,” says DeRepentigny.