Imrie RhiAnne Sherrick

Posted 1/24/06

"I couldn't believe our year-old baby Imrie was blowing kisses to the doctors and nurses at Riley," says her mother Carrie Sherrick of Monon in northern Indiana. "This was right after she was awakened from critical surgery for a very large tumor in her chest. It all happened so fast."

The day before, Imrie had wakened in pain, unable to use her legs. She was immediately sent by a local doctor to Riley Hospital for Children and diagnosed with a rare form of childhood cancer called neuroblastoma. A tumor was pressing against her spinal cord, pushing the heart against the chest wall and the lungs against the sides of her body. Neurosurgeon William Whitehead performed the successful surgery.

Today, at a year and a half, Imrie is pulling up on the furniture and doing well with chemotherapy. Carrie says, "She will beat this disease and touch everyone's heart by doing so."