Makiah Erlene Bartsch was born May 22, 2005 in Great Falls, MT. Nineteen days later she made our hearts complete when she arrived home in Helena. Since the first moment we saw her face, she held our hearts with her constant smile and squeal whenever she laughed. She danced and sang every moment of her life and loved adventure. She never shied away from a stunt and loved collecting worms, ladybugs and butterflies. Although at home in the dirt, camping and boating, she always asked to be “dressed up”. She would choose a dress over pants any day and if it sparkled or resembled a treasure, it must belong to her.<\/p>\n
On November 5, 2009 she began a journey that forever changed our lives. Makiah was diagnosed with stage 3 hepatoblastoma, a childhood liver cancer. We spent 7 months in Spokane, WA and 2 months in Salt Lake City, UT. Over 9 months Makiah endured 6 surgeries, 7 rounds of chemo, countless transfusions, a list of medicines that make your head spin, a liver transplant and more procedures than one would ever think possible in 9 months. She fought with every breath in her. She yelled, screamed, cried and begged. She wanted it to stop, but became uneasy and asked to go see “her nurses” and to sleep in her hospital bed when she felt icky. We brought her home to Helena on July 26, 2010. The cancer had relapsed, again, and her body was betraying her. On Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 9:20am, Makiah Erlene Bartsch breathed her last. Her kidneys and liver had failed, her arteries restricted blood flow, fluid in her lungs and abdomen caused her tremendous pain. Makiah is finding the peace now with her Creator God that she couldn’t find here on earth this year.<\/p>\n
Makiah is survived by her big brother Casimir, 8 years old, who always seemed to know how to make her laugh even if she was throwing up or yelling at him; her forever parents Jeremy and Bridget who thank God everyday for the amazing gift of a daughter who always smelled like cookies; grandparents Jack and Sandy Hamlin of Helena, MT, Patsy Corey of Great Falls, MT, Alvin and Sandi Bartsch of Spokane, WA; her uncle Nick Hamlin of Helena, MT and cousins Morgan, Ashley, Nikki and Kristi; her uncle and aunt Jim and Tammy Bartsch of Brady, MT and cousins Alyssa and Natalie.<\/p>\n
Cancer remains the number one disease that claims the lives of our children. Each year cancer kills more children under the age of 18 than asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis and AIDS combined. Pediatric cancer is referred to as an \u201corphan disease\u201d because there is little or no profit to be made by the pharmaceutical companies and the reason why they ignore pediatric cancers for the most part. In the U.S., combined, the cancers of children, adolescents and young adults to age 20 are the sixth most common cancer in the U.S. Recent reports indicate that nearly two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors experience significant medical problems resulting from their original cancer and\/or its treatment. In achieving our goals together we will all share in a future free of the misery, tragedy, and loss of innocence and life caused by childhood cancer. ~ taken from: cookiesforkidscancer.org.<\/p>\n
In addition to these statistics, hepatoblastoma that has metastasized kills 3 out of 4 children. Hepatoblastoma is a 1 in 1 million odds. That means that 200 children every year are diagnosed, out of that 200 only 2 will go on to need a liver transplant due to disease. We would be extremely honored and blessed if donations would be made in Makiah’s name to the Hepatoblastoma Foundation (hepatoblastomafoundation .org). Thank you.<\/p>\n
Family will begin to receive friends Friday, August 13, 2010 at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home from 4-6 p.m. A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Sat., August 14, 2010 at the First Assembly of God Church, 2210 Dodge Ave., Helena with interment to follow at Sunset Memorial Gardens.<\/p>\n","photo":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/240665_profile_pic.jpg","youtube_video_url":"","family_email":"","family_first_name":"","family_last_name":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/case"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenafuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}