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Show Monday, December 4, 1995 THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, By GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI Chicago Tribune - - It was two ORANGE, Calif. weeks ago, when his daughter's blood pressure suddenly plunged, when her eyes began to roll back into her head, when doctors hurried to her bedside and nurses wheeled in one of those emergency shock carts, that Rod Carew thought daddy's little girl was going to die. He stood there, just inside Room 306 of the Oncology Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital of Orange County, and watched in frozen terror as a nurse tried snaking a tube down Michelle Carew's throat. Michelle vomited and then, as someone dabbed away the discharge, she saw her father. "Daddy," she said weakly, "I'm fighting. I'm fighting. Daddy." That's when Carew, the usually stoic Hall of Famer and seven-tim- e American League batting champion, could take no more. He tore out of the room as if he were trying to stretch a single into a double, running past his wife, Marilynn, past his two other daughters, Stephanie and Charryse. This couldn't be happening, could it? Didn't the alphabet can- cer Acute Nonlymphocytic Leukemia (ANLL) know who he was? And wasn't baseball immortality supposed to cover this stuff? "I just lost it," Carew said. For nearly 2 hours the team of more than a dozen doctors and nurses worked to keep Michelle alive. Marilynn refused to step inside the crowded room, even as 1 Stephanie kept saying, "But, Mom, if she's going to die, nobody's going to be in there with her." Marilynn would have none of it. She told Stephanie that Michelle needed the doctors and nurses more than family. Anyway, Marilynn had already made up her hiind: Michelle wasn't going anywhere. Informed God, too. "I told Him that I'm not ready to give her up yet," she said. "I said, 'You can't have her yet because I want more time with her.'" Somebody listened. By 10 that night. Michelle s condition had "stabilized ... but for how Ions? It had been her second septic shock ' episode since being admitted more than eight weeks ago, the second time her weakened immune system almost failed to repel the infections so commonly associated with ANLL. The first time it happened, one of the attending physicians told the Carews, "Your daughter has nine lives. She has used up three of them." And that was before Michelle temporarily lost her eyesight. Before she dropped 25 pounds because of the four cycles (and counting) of chemotherapy. Before she was forced to spend her 18th birthday. Thanksgiving and every other day but two in a hospital room where the air is filtered specially to minimize the risk of bacteria and infections, where even her parents must wear a sterile mask over nose and mouth. In what amounts to a high-tec- h hospital cell, she waits for a suitable bone marrow donor to be found. According to Dr. Mitchell S. Cairo, director of the hospital's blood and bone marrow transplan- -' tation department, a transplant gives Michelle the best chance of surviving ANLL. which has a ?v percent cure rate. But because Michelle is the product of an interracial marriage (Carew is Marilynn is Caucasian), the pool of 1.9 million registered potential donors in the United States is reduced by 95 percent. Of that remaining donor pool, the chances of finding a suitable match are less than 20 percent. Afro-America- n. "We're a needle in a haystack," said Marilynn. The Carews took the donor tests. No match for Michelle. But in a cruel numerical quirk, the other two daughters were perfect donor matches ... for each other. Maybe that's why Carew didn't run too far that day. His daughter needed him. His family needed him. And for the first time in who knows how long, the proud and private Carew needed someone, too. And all because Michelle, who must be taking wisdom pills, told him shortly after the diagnosis, "Daddy, you can help. Be a voice for me. Be a voice to help me and the other kids out." So Carew, as much a recluse as anyone who ever played the game, did the unthinkable. He called a reporter, the first time in his life he had done so. Then he called another one. And another one after that. Then he began taping public-servic- e announcements and asking anyone and everyone to call his new favorite phone number: He wanted America to know a simple blood test can determine your marrow type, that the transplant procedure itself is relatively painless, about as annoying as landing tush-firon a patch of ice. Carew, now the batting coach for the California Angels, soon discovered he had more friends than he ever thought possible. Suddenly he was George Bailey in "It's A Wonderful Life." All he had to do was ask. When a recent donor drive was organized at a nearby Planet Hollywood, more than 700 people signed up for testing. When an on Michelle's announcement behalf was made at an Angels game late this summer, more than 3.000 people called to ask how they could help. When Carew mentioned the hospital name to several Angels players, his daughter suddenly found herself with a visisteady stream of tors. Meanwhile, a prison convict saw a story on Michelle's condition and wrote to offer to take the test. And just last week, Carew filmed a public service TV spot with a recovered leukemia patient named Drew, who happened to have stayed in the same Room 306. "She'll be all right," he told st again. What they didn't know was that Michelle had been to the doctor a few days earlier. A blood test had been taken. When Marilynn, Charryse and Michelle arrived the next morning, the family physician took a look at the lab results and told them to report to the emergency room, where a specialist in infectious diseases would meet them. The specialist examined Michelle, took more blood and then told Marilynn, "I really think you should call your husband." And that's when Charryse accidentally saw the doctor's diagnosis on a slip of paper. "Suspect leukemia," it read. Just to be sure, Michelle's blood samples were sent to several different labs. A few days later the diagnosis was confirmed: ANLL. When told the news, Carew returned home, walked past the two trophy rooms that house, among other things, his seven silver bats, his American League Most Valuable Player award, his mementos from his 3,000th hit, his Hall of Fame induction and his 8 All-StGames, and began weepHe cries almost every night. ing. "I'm still in a state of disbelief," he said. Marilynn was no different. "I thought they had made a mis 1 ar Enoch Davis aided two grocery-stor- e employees in catching two unarmed teens who had wrested the purse away from an elderly woman as she was being helped off a bus in front of the store. "One of the clerks thought they said might be" basketball players, Las Cruces the Sgt Rose Maese of Police Department. "We'd like to know who they are because we'd them a letter or somelike to has canceled. Chemo. half-inflate- ' FOR THE TICKETS been Through the window, you see a darkened room and a pair of pink slippers on the floor. And outside, hanging limply from a medical d cart, are several purand green birthday balloons. ple Her 18th was one of those bad days. Carew or Marilyn or one of the other daughters spend every night with Michelle. There is a foldout chair the size of a seat in business class, but that's it for creature comforts. Doesn't matter. During Carew's visits, he only sleeps one or two hours. The rest of the night is spent staring at her vital-sigmonitor, or helping her to the bathroom, or gently stroking her face. Sometimes in tlue wee ho'trs. w hen Michelle's eyes are squeezed shut, Carew will talk softly to his daughter. "Michelle, you OK? Try to breathe, honey." That's when she surprises him. "Daddy," she says wearily, "will you please be quiet? I'm trying to sleep." Carew will smile and. for a moment, all is well. cj k I and returned from a road game loss to the Mina series-endin- g nesota Twins dropped his bags inside the door and. still upset about the way the Angels blew a late lead, retreated to a room to play a game of solitaire. A few minutes later, he heard singing. It was Marilynn. his three daughters and his daughters' friends, and they were serenading him with "Happ) Birthday." Like it or not. they were celebratins his 50th. There was birthday cake, hugs and kisses and then the surprise gift: a Rotweiller puppy. The family played with the puppy for an hour or so and then Michelle excused herself. She had a paper to write for school. The topic: "Athletes Who Wouldn't Be Considered Good Role Models." About midnight. Marilynn went to check on her youngest daughter. "Rodney." she said after seeing Michelle. "I think you better come back here." Michelle's vision was blurred. She had a headache and her back hurt. Carew gently picked her up. put her in bed. gave her a couple of Tylenols and promised to take her to the family doctor the next morning. The Carews figured it was Michelle's allergies acting up ricfay t J fXM f iC U XV Saturday 9 Dec. The Daily Herald and BYU have teamed up to bring you exciting Cougar Classic Basketball action! ft Dec. 8th - 5:30 pm Louisiana Tech vs. Stephen F. Austin 7:30 pm Cal. State Northridge vs BYU If 5:30 pm Preliminary game 7:30 pm Championship game XV For more information Call 378-BYU- 1 r . f or New-Mexic- 2 State. He scored 12 points loss for the Aggies in their 77-7- 0 Texas-EPaso on l to Thursday. Lampkin. a went scoreless 6-- 6 guard-forwar- d, in Thursday's game. He came to the Aggies from Cloud County Junior College in Kansas via Chicago's Carver High School. FOR fl Tickets !I.LI. lir'lL. vvun HVciiiauie Coupon Only! A Att I " nfit 3 I This coupon must be presented at The Marriott Center Ticket Office when you purchase game tickets Only 1 coupon for each set of 2 tickets GOOD ONLY FOR BYU COUGAR CLASSIC FRI. DECEMBER 8, OR SAT. DECEMBER r r ,11 v. Davis and Lampkin are both from Chicago. Davis, a forward, attended Taft High School and Iowa Western Junior College before coming to "W Dec. 9th Police said the woman was uninjured in the incident and the teens have been arrested. ; offered the help. 1 Carew. "That's a good-lucroom." The Carews didn't know a platelet from home plate until shortly after the night of Sept. 10. That was the evening Carew give thing." the The basketball players left conscene, but Thursday, they firmed they were the ones who er B5 During a recent visit by the Carews, a privacy curtain has been pulled around Michelle's bed and a scheduled physical therapy session big-leag- players help police catch crooks Accies Tobias Lampkin and Carew. who is bilingual, asked the girl's age. The mother said. "Tres," but the girl, smiling, held still want someone to wake me up and say it's a nightmare." up four fingers. Carew asked a few About 1,000 cases of ANLL are more questions when suddenly the diagnosed annually in Michelle's girl said, "Dios va a matarme." "God is going to kill me." age group. In this case, it struck a teen-agtold the girl that wasn't Carew who would polite bring home stray cats, shoo flies out of true, that God would take care of the house rather than reach for a her. Then he waved goodbye, swatter, send 50 cents to an elderly walked onto the elevator "and I pen pal in England so the woman just wanted to take my head and ram it through the door. could buy a cup of tea, invite perfect strangers to dinner on family "If this child, this this baby thinks this is what a snake named child, camping trips, keep Zebo and generally worry about God has in store for her, what must others more than herself. daughter, w ho just my When Michelle was finally told started college two weeks prior, the news, she asked, "Do I have a w ho understands all of this ... w hat chance?" Informed by doctors that must she be thinking?" she had an 80 percent chance of Turns out, according to the staff the leukemia going into remission, psychologist who later spoke with Michelle said, "That's all I want is the Carews. Michelle was more concerned about her parents than a chance." And that was it. She diun't cry. anything else. Typical Michelle. In fact, only once during the didn't complain, didn't show fear. Not long after Michelle's entire ordeal has Michelle asked. admission to the hospital, Carew "Why me?" It happened during was waiting for an elevator when a the second week of her stay at Hispanic mother and her little Children's Hospital. As Rod and daughter approached. The girl was Marilynn began to leave the room. bald from the effects of Michelle could contain her emohad wheel to a tions no longer. and chemotherapy small metal pole with her intra"I don't want you guys to go," venous medicine attached to it. she said that night. "What did I do She wore a cute dress and looked to get this? don't want to die." There are cood and bad days. up at Carew with bright eyes. ) NMSU Two LAS CRUCES (AP) New Mexico State basketball players became heroes last week when at a they stopped a purse snatching store. Las Cruces grocery' take," Marilynn said. "Someone screwed up. It couldn't be her. 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