Nevada mom helps infant daughter ring bell after child beats brain cancer

OAKLAND, Calif. — Emotions ran high for a Nevada mother who got to ring a cancer-free bell this month for her 4-month-old daughter.

Leann Borden, of Sparks, Nevada, was barely able to hold back tears as she rang the bell at the Oakland Children’s Hospital, with Lillian Grace Borden grasping the cord while being held by her father, Patrick Borden.

“Everyone in the hospital is in shock,” Leann Borden told KGO. “They say it’s magic. I say it’s faith.”

Lillian was born Sept. 5, 2019. When a nurse noticed the infant was not moving her arms and legs properly, an MRI was done and a tumor was found near her brain stem and spinal cord, the television station reported.

According to a GoFundMe set up to help Lillian’s family cover her medical expenses, the MRI was sent to specialists in Oakland, California. The family took Lillian from their home in Nevada to California, and doctors discovered a tumor near Lillian’s brain stem and spinal cord, KGO reported.

Doctors were unable to operate on the tumor because of its location, but they decided to use a recently approved form of chemotherapy that had worked on these types of tumors, the television station reported.

After three weeks of chemo, doctors did another MRI and found the tumor was gone, KGO reported. Doctors allowed Lillian to go home in November, and after a few more treatments, the infant was declared cancer-free in January, the television station reported.

“I want to thank Dr. (Caroline) Hastings for saving my baby. You guys are all incredible. I’ve never met such amazing people in my whole life,” Leann Borden said on a Facebook video that captured the bell-ringing ceremony.

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