10-year-old’s story inspires family, doctors

PRAIRIE CITY — Ten-year-old Leilani Lahey from Ankeny has been in University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for nearly 15 months and is continuing to shock her doctors not only with her fight to bounce back from her health issues, but with her inspiring attitude toward life.

It has even inspired Melissa and Eric Mindham of Prairie City, the girl’s aunt and uncle, to organize a benefit for Leilani, who suffers from dilated cardiomyopathy — a condition that causes the heart to grow faster than the body and affects the heart’s ability to pump blood. Leilani is recovering from a heart transplant in the hospital and is now waiting for a kidney transplant.

The benefit will be at the Jasper County Fairgrounds in Colfax Dec. 12. It’s scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. and there will be enough food, music and raffle items to host nearly 600 people.

Proceeds will help Leilani and the family — parents Steve and Carissa Lahey of Ankeny — with medical and travel costs and also support their other children.

Eric and Melissa began planning the benefit just three weeks ago, after Eric visited Steve and Carissa’s home in Ankeny, and saw nothing but empty shelves in their kitchen.

“We were opening cupboard after cupboard and there’s nothing in them. I opened up the refrigerator and there’s two packages of taco sauce. That’s all there was,” Eric said. “And of course my heart sunk clear to my stomach. They’re in bad trouble. This isn’t good. ‘I said what are we going to do now?’”

“Uncle E” returned to his Prairie City home that evening and said to his wife Melissa “we’re having a benefit.”

The family had just visited Leilani in Iowa City Sunday evening, and Eric said he was telling her about the benefit and all the people her story has inspired.

“She seemed blown away when I was talking with her about it today,” Eric said. “She was looking at me and I said ‘the calvary’s coming, Leila.’ She’s looking at me and I said ‘they’re coming I promise you.’”

Leilani was admitted into the hospital nearly 15 months ago and received her second heart transplant Sept. 29. She received her first transplant as an infant.

Because of her condition, Leilani has suffered multiple strokes prior to her second transplant and some of the major strokes even had doctors believing there was a chance she’d never walk the same. But a day or two later she was already up on her feet, her father Steve said.

“The doctors would be going back and trying to think ‘OK, did we miss a diagnosis there?’” Steve said. “And it wasn’t just a one time thing, it’s multiple times that this happened. She keeps bouncing back and still has her same personality. Like in logical terms it just doesn’t make sense.”

The doctors in the hospital even refer to her as a cat having nine lives.

“Everybody in there has the same thinking on Leilani — that is they all love her to death, but none of them trust her,” Steve said. “She’s been doing everything opposite of what the book says.”

After visiting her daughter Sunday, Carissa said if she was in Leilani’s position and going through every thing she has gone through and not seeing home for 15 months, she would’ve given up already. But the 10-year-old’s determination to keep a positive attitude is beyond inspiring to her parents and everyone she comes in contact with.

“It’s hard to see her go through so much. Especially going through a few strokes,” Carissa said. “It’s hard, but it’s encouraging to see her determination. I feel like as adults, mentally, we would’ve checked out by now.”

“And we have,” Steve said. “In points where we have struggled in our life, we have struggled to a point where we say ‘how much more can we take of this’ and we’re not even in her position. She’s a strong, amazing kid.”

Prior to Leilani’s lengthy stay at the hospital, she aspired to become a professional dancer, but has now told her parents she now wants to be a doctor when she grows up because she loves to help people.

“She’s got an amazing heart. Just the people aspect. She has a way about her that’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Steve said. “When people come in to see her, she cares more about how they’re feeling.”

Steve is a youth pastor at a church and shared a story about a time his boss visited Leilani while the family was waiting for a heart to become available for transplant. The senior pastor asked Leilani what she wanted him to pray for, and Leilani said pray for the family that the heart will be coming from, Steve said.

“The very next day she found out she was getting her heart. It was an amazing experience for all of us, but it was hard on her because she realized what that meant on the other end,” Steve said. “Kind of a lot for a 10-year-old.”

Leilani has attracted many people with her story. Peyton Meyer, an actor from a children’s show Leilani enjoys watching, visited her as well has several University of Iowa football players, cheerleaders, dancers and gymnasts. The UI president even stops by regularly to check in on Leilani.

“She’s attracting so many different people that I would never have imagined and it’s really neat to see,” Steve said. “Iowa City is a great place to be because it’s a learning hospital, and they are able to think on their feet. I’m so thankful for their hospital.”

Leilani will not be able to attend the Dec. 12 benefit like she and the family had hoped, but Steve said they are trying to set up a live streaming platform through Skype so his daughter can be present.

Live music will be played by the local Patty Richards Band, and a raffle will have donated items including numerous gift baskets, restaurant certificates, quilts, electronics and even a brand new large screen smart TV. Steve also confirmed that one of the raffle items will be a Kirk Ferentz signed football.

Raffle tickets will be $5 or five tickets for $20.

The hog roast dinner will include baked beans, cheesy potatoes and a green bean casserole.

Eric and Melissa are working on providing additional entertainment for the evening as well to create a family friendly event for Leilani, who’s story continues to inspire.

“She’s just got so much empathy for anybody. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant it is. She cares more about what’s going on with everybody else than herself,” Melissa said. “You wouldn’t think so. You’d think she’d be consumed by what she’s going through, but she’s not. She’s trying to make things better for everybody else.”