All efforts have been wasted. The small Rafael Álvarez Fernández He passed away last Saturday with just a few days left to turn four and a half years old. He spent more than half of his short life fighting a leukemia. He was treated for a long time in the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA), where he died, and in a shorter period, in a reference hospital in Barcelona. However, the fatal evolution of his disease prevented him from receiving the transplant that he urgently needed.
In his brief time in this world, Rafa made his parents happy, Noelia Fernández and Óscar Álvarez. Everything was very pleasant until one day bruises began to appear and the worst omens were fulfilled: acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Rafa made his classmates better at the Parque Infantil public school in Oviedo. While he was hospitalized, every day they did a video call, and I could have an “assembly” with them. Now they will have to metabolize a piece of news so difficult for children to understand.
HUCA deployed all its capabilities to try to heal you and make your life more enjoyable. He received treatment, a donor was sought, he attended classes, he enjoyed hospital clowns … The Galbán association, of families of children with cancer, supported their parents.
In October 2018, Óscar and Noelia were informed that the two years of chemotherapy had been useless: Rafa had relapsed. Various options were sought to perform a transplant (cord or umbilical cord), and the search was successful. However, even applying the latest available therapies, it was not possible to control the disease: The transplant could not even be attempted. The situation of the little Ovense was getting worse, and finally his life, his short life, was extinguished.
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