PORT ANGELES – Energetic and dramatic Haille Alley Jackson is like any other 7-year-old.
She hops around from watching “Babe: Pig in the City,” to playing with her dog – which she calls Beagle – to writing an essay on summer plans – all within 30 minutes time.
Haille had a heart transplant five years ago and though it has been a roller coaster – full of ups and downs her grandmother Kathy Anding says – Haille is going strong now.
“She went for a biopsy in April and was just perfect,” Anding said.
The first-grader loves to read and write, she said.
“She picks up everything so fast,” Anding said.
However, she is looking forward to the summer days of freedom.
In her summer essay, she plopped down in a chair to write about how she can’t wait to go swimming in a pool with her mom, Crystal, and brother, Zachary.
She can’t swim in lakes because of the dirtier water, her grandmother explained.
“We worry about her every time she gets sick,” said Anding.
“During the beginning-of-the year conferences, I always try and stress to the teacher to tell parents not to let their kids come to school sick, because when Haille gets sick it is so much worse.”
But other than that, the child is perfect.
One day 5½ years ago, Haille was breathing hard and not seeming well, so her grandparents took her to the doctor.
After a couple of days into the hospital visit and they asked for an MRI, recalls her grandfather, Don Anding.
The test reveled a heart almost double the size of what it should be and tumors on the side, filling her chest cavity and collapsing her left lung.
Haille was taken to Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, where her family was given three options.
The doctors could try and operate.
“Because of where the tumors were, that would have killed her,” her grandmother said.
They could wait and see if things were resolved on their own.
Or they could get her on a list for a heart transplant.
“So obviously, we really had no choice,” Kathy Anding said.
Haille was on the regional list for a new heart and waited until she medically died twice before being revived.
That put her on the national list.
As the family waited, Anding’s mother mentioned getting Haille baptized.
They did, and the next day they were told a heart had arrived.
“It was one of those things that could have been a coincidence but it made a believer out of me,” Anding said.
The heart was from a boy in Phoenix who was about Haille’s age at the time.
The boy’s mother wrote a letter to Anding about a year after the transplant and Anding replied with an offer for the family to meet Haille should they want to.
“I haven’t ever heard back from them, but I wanted them to know how much we appreciated what they did,” she said.
“I told her about Haille and what kind of little girl she was.
“Back then, from her description of her son, the similarities between him and Haille were amazing.”
Haille will be on anti-rejection medication for the rest of her life, which gives her a few mood swings, but it is worth it, Anding said.
“She is spoiled,” she added.
“This is Haille’s house.
“Haille’s dogs, Haille’s computer, everything.”
But Anding doesn’t mind.
Haille does ask questions sometimes about her heart, Anding said.
“And she seems to remember everything, too, not from back then, of course, but the things that we tell her.”
The grandparents, dubbed Papa and Jana by Haille, still have pictures of Haille hooked up to machines and of the heart and tumors that almost took the child’s life.
Once a year, usually close to her “heart anniversary,” Haille returns to Children’s for a biopsy, and several times a year for electrocardiograms to check out how her heart is doing.
Haille loves Children’s.
“She loves that place,” Don Anding said.
“Who knows maybe she’ll grow up and work there.”
Kathy Anding said that her appreciation for the community support has been substantial.
Every time she hears about another child in a life-threatening position she tries to give what she can to help the parents.
Anding, who works at Rite Aid, also has helped out with the company’s annual drive to get donations for Children’s Miracle Network.
“We put up pictures of Haille so people know that miracles do happen,” she said.
“Haille is our poster child for Children’s Miracle Network.”
