Elsa’s passion is artistic gymnastics. Her childhood has always been common and like any other child her age, she likes to play with her friends and her brother in the Valencian town of Font d’en Carròs. This normality, however, has been interrupted by a serious health problem.
At just 9 years old, Elsa has been diagnosed with bone marrow aplasia, a serious and rare disease in children, since for every million inhabitants, only two or three suffer from it.
It all started with bruises on the legs. Her mother, Manoli, remembers it: “They were bruises that she caused herself when she hit herself, playing or one that was done while she was doing artistic gymnastics and she kneed,” she comments for Telecinco.
What may seem like a normal thing being children called the attention of the school teachers, who believed that something could be happening to Elsa, so Manoli decided to take her to the Denia hospital.
At first, the doctors believed that the girl suffered from ‘purpura’, a vascular disease, but they ended up ruling it out. After several tests, they verified that Elsa had very low platelets and, although she “apparently was great”, she remained hospitalized for two days until she was transferred to the University Hospital of La Fe, in Valencia, where more tests were carried out.
The result of a first biopsy revealed possible leukemia, but a week later another test uncovered marrow aplasia, a disease in which the marrow stops producing red and white blood cells, but also platelets. “It’s as if you had a very strong anemia,” Manoli details in the aforementioned medium.
To be cured, he needs a bone marrow transplant. “It would be 90% of the cure,” explains the mother. Now, her family is looking for a compatible donor and is calling for a marrow for Elsa. “I need to save my daughter,” she declares.
For now, Elsa has to be isolated, and if she goes out she always has to wear a mask, since her defenses are very low. Although she is facing a serious illness, Manoli remains positive, and she also comments “Elsa is lively right now, she is fine and has gained weight”, something that encourages her to continue asking for help to save her daughter’s life.
Meanwhile, Elsa follows a treatment that works for “5 or 6 weeks”, but Manoli regrets that it could start to get complicated if the body begins to reject transfusions.
“Right now my daughter is surviving thanks to the blood donations that people make,” she says, and she knows that being a donor is key to this type of disease. Manoli and the rest of the family are still waiting for a compatible donor. With only 90 minutes (the time that the transfusion process lasts), Elsa’s life can be saved, who continues with the same desire as always to play with her friends and her brother.
