JEANERETTE — Katie Daigle has heard her last rites three times. When she was just 9 years old, the Jeanerette native spent so many months bed-ridden with leukemia she forgot how to walk.

There were times when she told her mother she wanted to die.

But Katie survived. Her doctors said a combination of aggressive chemotherapy and family support drove her leukemia into remission, where it has stayed.

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This year, Katie and her family are celebrating a milestone. The cancer that once threatened to take her life has remained dormant for 10 years, and her doctors expect it to stay that way.

When Katie was diagnosed in 1999 with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), her parents were between jobs and uninsured. With nowhere else to turn, they sought treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

The pediatric hospital, widely regarded as a leader in cancer treatment, routinely accepts uninsured patients and also covers their transportation, lodging and meals. Despite multiple surgeries and seven months of chemotherapy, the Daigles never paid a penny for Katie’s treatment. 

Almost a decade has passed since Katie left Memphis, but St. Jude has remained an integral part of her life. Because so many patients are not asked to pay for treatment, St. Jude relies heavily on charitable contributions.

As a means of giving back to the hospital that saved her life, Katie has traveled across the country — from Chicago to Las Vegas — to speak at fundraising galas for St. Jude. She also remains active in local fundraising.

“Katie has raised millions of dollars for St. Jude,” her mother, Lisa Daigle, said in an interview. “Anytime they called, we went.”

Katie, now 19, leads a normal life. She has a boyfriend and a job. She is studying kinesiology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and hopes to be a physical therapist some day. Her doctor is confident she will be able to have children if she chooses.

When Katie reflects on her battle with cancer and her time at St. Jude, she says it almost seems like a different life.

“It doesn’t even seem like it really happened,” she said softly. “It seems like a dream. It seems like it would be impossible for me to survive that.” 

It wasn’t a dream, but Katie’s story began very much like a nightmare for everyone involved.

Not the flu

Katie’s parents detected something awry in early 1999. Katie was sick for weeks and could not shake flu-like symptoms. Her side hurt and she complained of frequent headaches.

Bruises began appearing on her body — a frequent symptom of leukemia attributed to a lack of platelets in the blood — but Lisa said she was not alarmed because her daughter, a tomboy, was active in sports.

With a 105-degree fever, Katie’s family took her to the doctor. A local physician initially mistook her symptoms for the flu, but later the cancer was identified after blood testing at Iberia Medical Center.

Katie needed two pints of blood right away, and doctors urged her parents to find a hospital to begin chemotherapy. Because the Daigles had no insurance, their options were extremely limited. Someone mentioned New Orleans, but Katie said her grandmother insisted on St. Jude. Her doctors made a few calls, and soon the Daigles were on their way to Tennessee.

They were told to pack for at least two weeks.

St. Jude occupies a campus the size of a small university in the heart of downtown Memphis. Lisa said she was impressed from the moment they arrived. A doctor and a nurse were waiting at the front of the building to greet them.

“They said, ‘You must be the Daigles.’ ” Lisa said.

Hospital officials conducted blood testing right away and confirmed Katie had AML. Adding to the urgency was the fact the cancer had advanced to stage 4.

“They said, ‘She needs chemotherapy. She’s going to be here for a year,’ ” Lisa said. “I started crying and walked out. I was like, ‘This is not happening.’ After that we just let them take over and we let them do what they had to to keep her alive.”

The Daigles agreed Lisa would move to Memphis to support Katie. Lisa’s husband and 2-year-old daughter, Kristen, would hold down the fort back home.

“It was hard on her,” Lisa said of Kristen. “She thought I left her.”

The right place

Though Lisa was still in shock, she took comfort knowing Katie was in the right place. AML is rare among children, but the staff at St. Jude is accustomed to treating about 25 new AML patients a year, said Dr. Raul C. Ribeiro, a specialist who treated Katie.

“What makes a difference at St. Jude, particularly among patients with AML, is the opportunity to have access to extremely refined, sophisticated supportive care,” Ribeiro said in a phone interview. “I can treat them equally. If I need to order a CAT scan, I don’t have to think twice. Our decision is really based on the need. I have been in other places where, sometimes, you have to consider insurance.”

Katie’s doctors had little time to waste with AML, a fast-growing cancer. Katie’s white blood cells were dividing at an abnormal rate and accumulating in the bone marrow, which interferes with normal blood cell production.

Doctors attacked Katie’s cancer with strong chemotherapy, forcing it into remission. Lisa breathed a cautious sigh of relief.

Everything was going according to plan. However, several complications soon arose that worsened Katie’s chances of survival, Ribeiro said. The combination of leukemia and chemotherapy chipped away at Katie’s immune system. She ran a fever and was frequently sick.

At one point, Lisa said her daughter was down to about 48 pounds and a 15 percent chance of survival.

“She had just about given up,” Lisa said. “She was telling me, ‘Mama, I want to die.’ Honestly, I still don’t know how she made it through those months.”

Katie developed a fungal infection on her spleen and liver that eventually spread to her lungs. She recalls a time in the intensive care unit when one of her neighbors died each day. A pastor was summoned on three separate occasions to read Katie her last rites.

Lisa recalls discussions with hospital personnel about her daughter’s burial. But each time Katie was not expected to make it through the night, she woke up the next morning.

“There was a really unique aspect of her personality. She was really a fighter during this process,” Ribeiro said.

“She always kept her positive attitude. I think it was a combination of her personality and family support that helped. (Her survival) was remarkable given the complications.”

Lisa said a bad sinus infection ultimately prevented the fungus from spreading to Katie’s brain.

“It saved her life,” she said. “That fungus wanted to take over.”

Doctors eventually removed about half of Katie’s left lung.

A normal life

After several months, Katie regained enough strength to leave St. Jude, at first for only a month, but then for good.

“They told us, ‘You’ll probably be back. Don’t get your hopes up,’” Lisa said, referring to the relapses cancer patients often experience.

After a few months of home schooling, Katie returned to school and resumed the normal life of a fourth-grader. Though she was missing half a lung, she remained active and played a number of sports, becoming the first girl in Iberia Parish to play middle schoolfootball.

At Jeanerette Senior High School, Katie excelled in the classroom and on the field. In addition to playing softball and basketball, she maintained her grades and graduated third in her class. She was even voted homecoming queen her senior year.

As the years pass, Katie’s prognosis continues to improve. Ribeiro said Katie’s chances of relapse “drastically decreased” after five years.

“At 10 years, I would expect her to be completely cured,” Ribeiro said.

Katie recently returned from a checkup at St. Jude. Though the cancer remains in remission, Ribeiro said the hospital is scanning for any long-term side effects of the chemotherapy.

Because her treatment was so successful, Katie is now part of a life study in which her bone marrow will be used for further research. 

Looking back, Katie says her memories from Memphis are blurry at times. But in case she ever needs reminding of the hurdles she overcame, her parents keep an album chronicling the entire experience.

The scrapbook is full of newspaper clippings that featured Katie and her battle with leukemia.