Kiara's mom, Lori, would soon learn that Kiara was very sick. Kiara had a mass pancreatic tumor on the head of her pancreas called an insulinoma. Her situation was life-threatening and would require a very serious surgery. At age 17, Kiara was the youngest person ever to have this procedure, called Whipple surgery.

Kiara spent 21 days at UVA Medical Center and then returned home for 6-8 weeks of recovery. Kiara was fortunate; the tumor was benign. 

"We are so thankful that the community thought of us and helped us with donations from Samuel’s Supper™. This act of kindness and love saved us. We didn't know what we were going to do after Kiara’s discharge. I still couldn't go to work because Kiara needed 24/7 care at home...."

~ Lori

Kiara's Amazing Story:

Kiara's ordeal started on March 2, 2016. She passed out in school and was unresponsive. I picked her up at 11am from school and although she was awake, she was not herself. I took her to Stonewall where they checked her blood sugar and it was 12 points. The doctors were amazed Kiara was still able to walk and speak and said that she should have been comatose. They gave her I.V. fluids and made her eat a sandwich, which brought her blood sugar up to 150. She began coming around, but 20 minutes later she started relapsing again, as her blood sugar had dropped to 60. It was critical that Kiara be transported to UVA. On March 4, 2016, a team of 30 UVA pediatricians, doctors, and resident students walked into her room. They suspected, that Kiara had a mass pancreatic tumor on the head of her pancreas, and needed to do an MRI. The MRI showed a tumor which was producing more insulin than her body needed. This was killing her blood sugar, and required very serious surgery. 

On March 8, 2016 at 6am, Kiara went into surgery to remove the Insulinoma. The surgery lasted about 8-9 hours. At age 17, Kiara was the youngest person ever to have this procedure, called Whipple surgery. Due to the tumor’s location, once removed, everything had to be reattached back to the pancreas. Thank God, the tumor was was benign. However, left undiscovered could have taken Kiara from us too soon.

We were breathing a sigh of relief when on the evening of March 9, the doctors were making their rounds and came by to check on Kiara. They didn't like her color, so wanted to do blood work to make sure everything was going in the right direction. At 5pm that evening, Kiara was rushed into emergency surgery. They discovered she had bile leaking and the only thing to do was to do emergency exploratory surgery. This surgery took 7 hours, and was the third time in eight days that Kiara was almost taken from us. 

March 10, 2016 was honestly the scariest day of my life. When I opened my eyes at 5am and looked at my child, I didn't recognize her at all! I was instantly beaten down. After all we had already been thru, when I looked at her that morning, I will honestly say that was my breaking point. She was so swollen, a dark purple in color, and ice cold. I just knew, it was the end. Life would no longer be as we had known it for so many years. I will never forget that morning for as long as I live. As I broke down at her bedside and cried and cried and held her hand, this bright, beautiful, 17 year old child of mine opened her eyes and looked at me and said “Mom, no good morning sunshine?” That is what I would say to her every morning for the entire 21 days we lived at UVA. I replied,”Of course, good morning sunshine"! 

Those doctors and nurses pushed her, then pushed her some more. I am completely grateful for everything they did and how determined and dedicated they were to Kiara and her recovery. She would fight them daily because she was in so much pain. However, they would not let her quit. She spent two weeks after surgery in the hospital recovery. Then it was 6-8 weeks at home recovery. Kiara was released from UVA on March 25, 2016. She was home schooled until her medical release on April 25, 2016. Kiara returned to school and graduated on time with her class on June 4, 2016. Her health care providers were determined to get Kiara back to normal. And they won! :)

Now Kiara is a bright, beautiful, fun filled 18 year old who doesn't take life for granted anymore. She is still stubborn as ever; I think even more so now! She is expecting to start college this fall and pursue a career in special education teaching. She still has to see the surgeon for a check up every 6 months. She was also seeing the endocrinologist every 3 months since being discharged from UVA, and on January 27, 2017, they released her completely from their care. This was just an unfortunate ordeal that just happened with no apparent cause. She goes to her next surgeon appointment on April 28, 2017, and we expect the surgeon to give us positive news as well! So, "our story" hopefully will end happily ever after......

We were so grateful that the community pulled together and thought about us. We are a normal hard working family and didn't know where to turn when this happened. We were just taking one day at a time, but it was hard on us all. My oldest daughter, who was 19 at the time, had to basically become a full time parent to our youngest 13 year old daughter. My husband was exhausted from working and driving back and forth to the hospital. I needed to stay with Kiara at all times and we had other kids to take care of. We are so thankful that the community thought of us and helped us with donations from Samuel’s Supper. This act of kindness and love saved us. We didn't know what we were going to do after Kiara’s discharge. I still couldn't go to work because Kiara needing 24/7 care at home, so I could only work on her Dad's days off. The donations were used for getting Kiara back and forth to checkups and to catch up on bills that were neglected while we were trying to survive on one income. God always answers prayers! And every day in that hospital room, I prayed and prayed and prayed. I prayed for healing, comfort, reassurance, and guidance, help,.....but most of all, I prayed to God not to take my child from me....And he answered!! Thank you guys so much for everything! And God bless! :)

~ Lori H.