"Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting."
Mother Teresa
Cancer stripped her of everything including her life but it could not steal away God's LOVE, PEACE and the JOY that radiated through her. Korrine never stopped SMILING!
Korrine Lannie Croghan
Korrine Croghan was a vivacious 14-year-old girl who lived all of her life in Livermore, CA. She had a love for animals, sports, and most of all, family. Korrine was a straight “A” student while attending Mendenhall Middle School and was working hard in her first trimester at Granada High. She was a great friend to many and was everything that a brother, mother and father could ask for in a daughter. Korrine was the type of girl who would greet you with a wide smile and look into your eyes and truly would want to know how you were doing
Korrine & Cancer
On December 20th, 2007, Korrine was diagnosed with Choriocarcinoma with a germ cell element. Choriocarcinoma is a very rare type of cancer in teenage girls and inflicts less than 200 nationwide each year. Although the cancer started in her left ovary, the cancer had spread to her right ovary, lungs and liver. After the removal of a cantaloupe sized tumor in her left ovary on December 21st of 2007, Korrine, endured 10 months of intense chemotherapy designed for adult men.
During the course of her treatment, Korrine suffered many complications. In early April of 2007, her liver began to bleed. After staying at Kaiser Oakland for almost two weeks, Korrine was transfered to UCSF and spent a month in the intensive care unit. The doctors at UCSF Medical Center were finally able to stop her bleeding liver, but, not before it filled her abdomen with 5 liters of blood that had to be drained via a tube inserted into her stomach. On top of that, both of Korrines’ lungs collapsed while undergoing a CT scan that almost took her life. Because of that, 2 liters of fluid needed to be drained off of her lungs with the use of another drainage tube. Throughout her treatment Korrine needed numerous blood and platelet transfusions. She had nosebleeds that lasted an hour on several occasions. At one point, she had 18 intravenous tubes running through her body filled with anti-bacterials, anti-fungals, nutrition, painkillers and chemotherapy. Korrine miraculously made it through those tough days at UCSF and returned to Kaiser Hospital in Oakland. She was finally stable and was released to go home in late June. Just as things were starting to look up for her, she suffered septic shock in July that forced her to go back into intensive care at Kaiser in Santa Clara for 2 weeks.
Korrine returned home in late July and went through imaging scans to see if the cancer had disappeared. The scans always came back good, but not great. In an effort to kill and stop the remaining cancer cells, she underwent an emergency round of chemotherapy in early September. Unfortunately, it did kill the remaining cancer and her doctors had run out of options.
Korrine spent her last days at home with her family reading books and loving on her cats and dog. She passed away quietly, at home, on October 27th, 2008. Through it all, Korrine had a positive attitude and never gave up or complained. Many consider Korrine a hero.
Team KC
The Team KC website was originally started as a way to encourage, educate, raise awareness, and keep friends and family informed with accurate information on Korrine's treatment and progress. Family, classmates, friends, community members, and complete strangers rallied to support Korrine and her family through her fight against Choriocarcinoma. We were amazed by the amount of support we received, and it is now our desire to give back. In March, 2009, Team KC became an official nonprofit by joining forces with Kaiser Foundation Hospital. All monies raised by Team KC will directly benefit pediatric cancer patients and their families. All monetary contributions are tax deductible.
Our Mission: To help improve the quality of life of pediatric cancer patients and their families. We wish to supply children with fun activities, toys and anything else that will brighten and better their lives. Monies will also be used to help parents pay for bills and defray the costs of gas, food and lodging that go along with caring for a child with cancer.
Stay Positive, LIVESTRONG & Welcome to Team KC!
*This is the official Team KC website and the only website approved by the Croghan family. Please do not use content, images, or video from this site without permission. This is an effort to respect the family's privacy and ensure that all content is accurate and approved. Thank you for your cooperation.
A Note From Korrine (written after her 4th round of Chemo)...
Hello everyone! It's me, Korrine. I just wanted to take a
moment to thank each and every one of you for supporting me through emails,
visits, food, gifts, and most importantly, prayer. Without it, I probably
wouldn't have made it this far. Anyways, on a happier note, I am happy to
announce that I am feeling very good. This last round of chemo hit me pretty
hard, but I think that it is more exiting to end things with a big BANG! I will
try to start writing things for the blog now that my chemo therapy is over, but
until then, just know that I love every single one of you and I am always
thinking about my family, friends, and even the people who I've never met
before. Thanks for joining my battle and for making this experience "The
Experience of a Lifetime." LIVESTRONG! And stay positive.
Korrine Lannie Croghan
Team K.C. has created a Team K.C. Fans page on Facebook as another avenue to let people know of all the wonderful things we are doing to help provide for pediatric cancer patients and their families. We are doing this in memory of our daughter Korrine Croghan. If we all do our part we will continue to make a positive difference in the life of a child who is struggling to survive as they battle cancer. We will continue to post on the blog and update with new pictures we are only using facebook as a way to get the word out there and let more people know about all we are doing as Team K.C. continues to grow and help others.
We are the only foundation that is currently helping to support children with cancer and their families at Kaiser Oakland. Kaiser serves the greater Bay Area and beyond in the treatment of pediatric cancer patients. This is another reason why we do what we do these children need our help and as long as we can do something and make a difference we will continue to do so.
Please let us know how Korrine has inspired you and what have you been doing with her insparation. Korrine will forever inspire us to help children going through what our daughter went through. We know the pain and suffering a child with cancer goes through and we also know the pain and suffering the families are going through as we ourselves lived it. Kaiser Pediatric Oncology Oakland tells us that Korrine was one of the most severe cases they have ever seen and what she went through was more than any child should ever have to suffer.
We are inspired to continue helping pediatric cancer patients and their families through Team K.C. (Korrine Croghan)this is what our daughter wanted.
In Korrine's Words,
Stay Positive and LiveSTRONG
Dana and Matt Croghan
2 comments:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Croghan;
I feel it is important for you to know how much of an impact Korrine has had on me and my life in the past two years. First off I can honestly say that Korrine is my true inspiration, I have never met anyone so courageous or brave as she was. Up to this day Korrine has inspired me to continuely work hard in all aspects of my life, and cherish everyday as if it is my last.
I have aspired to be just like her in everyway possible. Since day one of hearing about Korrine's cancer I have worked harder and gotten better grades in school, and I have had a 4.0 since last year. I work harder at Soccer practices to become the best I can be, and I am hoping to learn how to play water polo, I feel there must be some reason why Korrine loved it so much! (: At the moment, I am working my hardest to get a college scholarship for soccer into a division 1 school, where I hope to become a Pediatric Oncologist. I wish to be able to help kids just like Korrine, and allow them to inspire others as Korrine has inspired me.
I continue to tell her story to my friends at school, and I still consider her my best friend. There is not a day that passes by that I do not think of her, and I continuely wonder where she would be and what she would be doing at that very moment if she could still be here with us. For the limited amount of time I had to get to know her, I have learned so much. Her story continues to inspire me to become a better person overall and I feel that she has had such an incredible impact on my life. Thank you for sharing your incredible daughter and her story with me. LIVESTRONG! (:
Sincerely,
Audrey Walke
Thanks for sharing your family with us. We love you sooooo much.
Liz
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