|
Young Girl Perseveres In Battle With Hodgkin's
By Bill McLaughlin
 | | --Photo By Bill McLaughlin Breann LaManna is only 10, but she has already won more battles than most do in a lifetime. |
|
BERKELEY - Breann La- Manna wants to go back to school with her friends.
She loves school, scores high honors grades, wins things like the President's Award for being the best student and has mapped her educational path all the way to Princeton. Or Harvard. Or some other Ivy League school. On scholarship.
It could happen. The 10- year-old has overcome much in her life. Once, she was carefree, deeply involved in cheerleading, dance and swimming. Then she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, a rare form of childhood cancer, and spent much of the past year at Manhattan's Sloan-Kettering, one of the top cancer treatment hospitals in America.
"Since then, we've been on a rollercoaster," said Breann's father, Chris. "It's been one hurdle after another. Each time we get to a safe spot, something else happens."
Last month, Breann started back to school and was as happy as she'd ever been. Then doctors told her to stay home because exposure to vaccines other students had taken for childhood disease prevention might give her a painful case of shingles. She hopes to get clearance by the end of this year to be climbing on the school bus like her friends.
Until then, her fifth grade teacher at Berkeley Township Elementary School, Lauren Roth, has been tutoring Breann one hour a day. The time goes by too fast. She manages to keep busy the rest of the day with her keyboard, reading (a lot), doing math problems and playing with her 18-monthold brother, Robby.
Breann is also working on
top secret project for her school's Invention Convention and the Junior Science Fair, but her lips are sealed on what it's all about. She keeps up with school news from her pals, Tristan and Erica, but there's nothing like being there.
For every low the family enjoyed the past 11 months, there always seemed to be someone, somewhere to lift their spirits.
The diagnosis came after doctors originally thought she had a severe allergic reaction, and that her diet was poor.
"This is a girl who has never had a sip of soda, who loves vegetables," her mother Maria said. "We knew it wasn't her diet."
Breann insisted the pain was too much to be simply allergies. She was taken to Monmouth Medical Center, where doctors referred her to Sloan-Kettering immediately because of that hospital staff's expertise in childhood cancer cases.
"Sloan-Kettering saved Breann's life," Maria, said. "And nobody else could have. Dr. Tanya Trippitt is her doctor and she helped Breann get through the treatments."
Then, the high the LaManna's got from having Breann's rally back to good health hit a brick wall when the family's insurance carrier refused to pay for any of the treatment at the New York hospital. Needless to say, the debt ran into the thousands.
LaManna, who works for the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York, decided to switch the family's medical coverage after Aetna's refusal to cover the bills.
"At the time, a newspaper working on a story about us contacted Aetna," Chris LaManna said. "(Their representative) said 'All bills from now on would be paid by the company.' But he knew we'd already switched carriers and he still wouldn't pay a dime toward the bills we already had."
The insurance company successfully claimed no responsibility even though the LaMannas went to Monmouth as they were told by their primary care physician, and were referred to Sloan-Kettering by doctors at the Long Branch hospital.
Chris said when Aetna discovered the child had been transferred before formal approvals were given, their whole attitude changed. Even though the Monmouth doctors said the weekend trip by ambulance was part of a critical care scenario, the insurance company wouldn't budge.
"We had a hearing before the state banking and insurance board and they sided with Aetna," Chris LaManna said. "They had a bunch of lawyers who have a lot more experience in these cases."
So LaManna is trying to enlist local lawmakers in writing a "Breann's Law" to protect families against this sort of experience. He has the backing of Berkeley mayor Jason Varano, who is an aide to Governor Jon Corzine, and is seeking a meeting with the district legislators.
"Parents have no way of knowing what to do. All you care about is getting your daughter treatment. It's a shock when the bills come in. I hope we can prevent this from happening to other families," Chris said.
The course of treatment left the little girl completely bald, but she never wore a wig or hairpiece. She is what she is.
But getting through chemotherapy isn't easy. Breann had her low moments, but never lost sight of how her parents were affected.
"It's her personality," Maria said. When I was crying, she'd say, 'Don't cry anymore, Mommy. I'm a turtle. I'm very scared. Don't cry. It makes me nervous.' "
LaManna said Breann's spirits were lifted by fundraisers put on by her school friends and other organizations in town.
"The people of Bayville have been so wonderful," Chris said. "(Potter School Principal) Jeff Zito and all the staff and teachers and students are the greatest. Everywhere we turned, people stepped up to help us."
Just last month, an 18-foot by 33-foot heated, above-ground swimming pool was installed in the family's Bayville back yard, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and dozens of tradesmen and neighbors.
Although she only got to use the pool once so far, Breann said it gives her something to look forward to throughout the winter months.
Asked why she chose a pool as her wish, Breann said, "Disney World is just for one day. A pool lasts forever."
| 
)