FORT MYERS, Fla. - Nine-year old Sami Bagaason got to come home Sunday. After spending six months at the Children's Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio waiting to receive a bone marrow transplant to treat the rare condition, Fanconi Anemia, Sami finally came back to her hometown in Fort Myers.
“We’re going to eat cake," said Sami describing how she plans on celebrating her homecoming.
Sami's ability to get back and forth from Florida to Ohio was eased by the fact that her friend and pilot was able to step in to help.
“It was really rough on her to travel. So since I have a plane and stuff like that and I like going to Cincinnati, I was like well whenever she needs to go, I’ll fly her up,” said Robert Weber, Sami's Pilot.
Robert gave Sami rides for free and says he feels blessed to be apart of her process.
"Somebody had to do it. When she came out of the building this morning and saw that I was picking her up and she came up and grabbed a hold of me. And that really effects you."
One out of every 350,000 people get diagnosed with the blood disorder. It is consider incurable and in serious situations can be fatal. The transplant, however, gave Sami a chance to live a longer life and provided hope for her parents.
“Don’t give up, yeah, never give up... Don’t go by what other people say, go to the professionals," said Sami's parents, Cindy and Jr.
Sami will spend her time at home in the recovery process and hopes to be back in school full-time next year.
