Hunting for Treasure School helping girl raise funds for surgery By Ruby Gonzales Staff Writer
COVINA - Treasure Dearsaw likes Barbies, jazz dancing and anything chocolate. But right now, what the 7-year-old would like most of all is to go to Denver - "So they can make my tongue better," she says.
She hopes to be treated at the Vascular Malformation Center for a lesion inside her tongue that bleeds and swells, leaving her unable to close her mouth at times.
The Cypress Elementary School second-grader takes codeine for the pain and carries gauze in her backpack to staunch the blood that sometimes flows from her tongue.
Now Treasure's principal, community members and other local schools are trying to raise the estimated $125,000 needed to cover her medical and travel expenses. Through word of mouth and the Internet, they have raised $9,000 so far.
"It's friends telling friends," said Adin Rudd, Cypress Elementary's principal, who created the Web site to highlight his student's plight and give fundraising information.
Chelsa Dearsaw is touched and surprised by the support for the younger of her two daughters.
"It's amazing. These kids who don't know my daughter are helping her," she said.
Treasure must undergo treatments for an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, in her tongue.
The AVM lesion, consisting of direct connections between arteries and veins, is caused by abnormal clusters of blood vessels that occur during fetal development, according to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Web site.
"It can grow. It can rupture. It can cause life-threatening bleeding," said one of Treasure's physicians, Dr. George Teitelbaum, a neurological surgeon specializing in diagnostic radiology.
"\ is spread diffusely throughout the tongue," said Teitelbaum, who thinks surgery is not a good option for Treasure.
The lesion appeared as a reddish purplish spot on Treasure's tongue three years ago. Chelsa Dearsaw said they thought it was a discoloration. Six months later, it started to swell.
It sometimes becomes up to five times its original size and bleeds, Dearsaw said. Treasure cannot close her mouth and drools uncontrollably; she eats very little, her mother said, and sometimes wakes up with blood on her pillow. Dearsaw is afraid her daughter may choke while she is asleep.
The swelling and bleeding happen monthly, Dearsaw said.
"It's becoming worse. She bleeds more, the pain is more intense. One time she couldn't stop bleeding," Dearsaw said.
Childrens Hospital in Los Advertisement Angeles, where Treasure has been a patient for a little over two years, referred her to Dr. Teitelbaum, who practices at the USC University Hospital and the USC/Norris Cancer Center.
He referred her to Dr. Wayne Yakes, director of the Vascular Malformation Center at the Swedish Medical Center in Denver.
"He's the expert in trying to treat AVM with direct puncture using alcohol. He has the most experience" in that, Teitelbaum said.
Treasure takes steroids to shrink the lesion. She's missed 12 days of school this year and her mother says she is struggling.
Rudd called Treasure a conscientious student, kind, well-behaved, with lots of friends.
He and former PTA president Cheryl Driscoll started the fundraising drive. Rudd created the Web page and e-mailed everyone he knew. The site allows people to donate online.
Driscoll called a fundraising company to find the quickest way to raise money, so she's now selling candy bars. She said some supporters have bought a $40 box for as much as $150. The goal is to reach $45,000.
Word about Treasure spread. Grovecenter Elementary raised money and Sierra Vista Middle School plans to collect donations.
Chelsa Dearsaw is a divorcee raising two daughters, Treasure and Surrender, 11, on her own. Rudd called her one of the most active parent volunteers at Cypress Elementary. She lined up corporate sponsors for a school event and got businesses to donate smoke detectors, traffic cones and even enough bottles of glue to supply students for two years.
"If the shoe is on the other foot and it's my child, she would do the same thing," Driscoll said. "She is capable of doing \ on her own, but won't do it."
Dearsaw said she finds it hard to ask something for herself. Treasure reads the notes people send her and wants to thank them for their donations.
"They write \ donating money from their school and telling friends about it and hope you get better and things are going to be OK," Treasure said. "I feel loved."
