Our patients: Iva Beth Lindsey beats stage 4 cancer
Published on Sunday, December 1, 2019
By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu
These days, Iva Beth Lindsey loves to dance and practice gymnastics. Next year, she’ll head to kindergarten.
The 5-year-old “girly girl” is happy and healthy, said her mother, Nicole Lindsey of Greenwood.
“We love Children’s of Mississippi,” Lindsey said, “and we will be forever grateful.”
Iva Beth, now 5, has been cancer-free for a year.
Nicole and husband, Lake Lindsey, were concerned when they felt a lump on Iva Beth’s back, so they took her to the Children’s of Mississippi Emergency Department. After some tests, Iva Beth was diagnosed with stage 4 germ cell cancer.
“Iva Beth has had so many surgeries,” Nicole Lindsey said. “Our surgeons at Children’s of Mississippi (Dr. Christopher Blewett, Dr. Mason Shiflett and Dr. Michael Morris) are like family to us.”
After chemotherapy and surgeries to remove tumors in spots including her lower spine, adrenal gland, abdomen and brain, Iva Beth had three stem cell transplants at UMMC to restore her own blood-forming stem cells. She received radiation treatment at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, but most of Iva Beth’s care was provided by Children’s of Mississippi at Batson Children’s Hospital.
“Children’s cancer care is a big network,” Nicole Lindsey said. “It was important to us to get as much of her care in Mississippi as possible. At Batson, her doctors collaborated with other experts around the country to get her the care she needed.”