"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
I am so touched by all of you. Yesterday was very bitter sweet for us. We spent time cleaning korrine's headstone and putting up fresh flowers. I tied ribbon around the tree that was planted in memory of Korrine at the Aquatics Center. We spent the day remembering and thanking God for having been Korrine's parents. I'm thankful to have had fourteen very wonderful years with Korrine than to never have had the gift of korrine in our lives.
What made me happy yesterday was picking up 50 teddy bears with Easter eggs and candy all individually wrapped in pretty bags with ribbon from a wonderful women I have never met before. Picking up new stuffed animals from our church. I added these items to the already collected handmade quilts, handmade knitted blankets, Easter baskets, Bibles, the 1000 plus toothbrushes and toothpaste that were collected from Granada Little League and the community and the personal notes from a brownie troop with toothbrushes attached. We will be taking all of your generous donations up to Kaiser Pediatric Oncology patients at the clinic and in the hospital tomorrow. Every child in the hospital not just the oncology patients will receive a gift tomorrow because of your generous donations. This is how God has blessed Team KC.
Thank you to our Community for being so generous, thoughtful and kind. I have pictures of everything we received and I will be posting them along with the pictures that will be taken tomorrow at the hospital of the children receiving all of your gifts.
One of the most amazing things that happened yesterday is the phone call I received from Kaiser saying they are ready to move forward on the Team KC houses. I called our key person who is helping to make all of this a reality Bill Aboumrad and he is ready to move forward as well.
I also found out that the WII system from the Starbright Foundation made especially for hospitals with all the WII games loaded on a movable gaming system that is secured so nothing can be taken is being delivered next week to the hospital. This WII system is not your ordinary WII system and was purchased by Team KC from the money that was raised at our SwimSTRONG fundraiser.
Kaiser is also planing on doing a Feature Story on Team KC next week. We found all of this out on Korrine's birthday.
The best gift of all was having Korrine on April 18, 1994. Korrine gave everyone the gift of knowing her and showing us all how to Stay Positive and LiveSTRONG and to never lose faith or give up hope and to smile during the most difficult of times.
In Korrine's Words Stay Positive and LiveSTRONG,
Dana and Matt Croghan
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