Caitlin Soleil Lucas, or Courageous Caitie as we all know her, has passed at the age of three after battling a rare form of leukemia.
Hers was called juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML); it is a rare form cancer of the blood especially targeting infants and toddlers.
It started late last year when her parents Jay Jay and Feliz Lucas noticed on their daughter’s body what appeared to be insect bites. Then they morphed into skin lesions, and soon thereafter Caitie was admitted to the hospital.
READ: 3-year-old Courageous Caitie battles mystery disease
But her condition only worsened.
“Caitie had swollen lymph nodes, night sweats, low count of platelets and red blood cells, high count of white blood cells, blasts in her blood, an enlarged spleen, and more,” said an earlier Asian Parent report.
After local hospitals in the Philippines were unable to attend to her medical needs, she was eventually flown to Singapore to meet with specialists, and where she eventually continued her treatment until her passing.
The day she died, her mother Feliz posted an update on their Courageous Caitie Facebook page, saying Caitie had been having a difficult time breathing and had been intubated to assuage her discomfort.
READ: Treatment of rare diseases now new PhilHealth benefit
“This is the last time I saw Caitie’s eyes [completely] open last night. Asking for prayers right now, today she will be sedated and put on a tube to stabilize her because of her high respiratory rate.”
Then it wasn’t long before another update came, this time saying that Caitie’s condition had become critical and her oxygen level was not going up.
Caitie died late Thursday morning. Her parents announced her death on their Facebook page with a photo of the family together, captioned: “Today our daughter has gone to Jesus already.”
Courageous Caitie
Caitie became a viral sensation through her Facebook page, and in the process a source of inspiration for thousands of people who followed her and her family’s journey.
One of the Facebook page’s latest posts says: “Looking back…no wonder you were so advanced in everything. No regrets. So glad we brought you everywhere we could… Did everything we could. Became silly, study, play… Looking back, I know we did everything. No regrets. We lived it to the full. We flew around the world together… I will miss you pumpkin… your EQ, IQ was just so high… Your love for us was just so pure. I love you so much.”
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