A 12-year-old girl from Greeley showed strength and courage beyond her years battling a rare and life-threatening diagnosis.
She looks back at the scariest time in her life with a positive outlook that she maintained from her first day in the hospital.
Aubrie Dawson experienced a roller coaster of health scares that put her in a lot of life-threatening situations.
What started as a hospital visit due to liver issues progressed to bone marrow failure and a blood disorder that required a transplant. When she thought the battle had finally ended, she got an infection after her transplant that required doctors to think outside the box for solutions, leading her to join a clinical trial.
As she rose to meet these challenges, Aubrie made friends she now calls family and memories she will never forget, all while remaining contagiously cheerful.
Aubrie’s life changed drastically in late 2022 when her family noticed her eyes were yellow. Her pediatrician immediately referred her to the Pediatric Liver Center of Children’s Hospital Colorado.
Aubrie’s mother, Carissa Dawson, said the first week was trial and error as doctors searched to find the cause of Aubrie’s acute liver injury.
Doctors finally determined Aubrie had a disease called autoimmune hepatitis, according to Dr. Taizo Nakano, program lead for bone marrow failure and medical director of the Vascular Anomalies Center at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Autoimmune hepatitis can happen after an infection or in children because their younger immune systems can make mistakes.
Instead of fighting off illnesses, autoimmunity causes a person’s immune system to attack the person’s own cells. Aubrie’s liver was the first target. Doctors then noticed her blood counts dropping low, Nakano said.
Nakano went to the source of Aubrie not properly making blood, the bone marrow, what he calls “the factory” that makes the blood. He also knew of the common connection between an autoimmune attack on the liver and an attack on the bone marrow.
Aubrie underwent a bone marrow evaluation that showed her bone marrow, what should have been a full tank of gas at 100%, was at less than 10%. After the bone marrow failure, Nakano diagnosed Aubrie with severe aplastic anemia.
Severe aplastic anemia, a rare and life-threatening blood disorder, happens when someone’s bone marrow can’t make enough blood cells and platelets. Children’s Hospital Colorado treats about 15 children with severe aplastic anemia from multiple states each year.
When Aubrie found out she had a disorder that could kill her, she initially felt fearful. She thought about all the things she wanted to do when she grew up, like have kids and work at a children’s hospital.
Infections became the biggest risk Aubrie faced, Nakano said. To protect herself, Aubrie had to be pulled out of school and say goodbye to regular life, like many people did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is kind of the opposite of leukemia, per se, and yet equally serious of a problem,” Nakano said. “When we go into bone marrows and find leukemia, it’s a crazy cell that’s taken over all the real estate and suffocates it from making anything. This (severe aplastic anemia) is complete emptiness and the lack of precursors to make blood again.”
Around this time, Aubrie’s family began hosting drives with “Be The Match,” a nonprofit that operates a registry of blood stem cell donors that can match with patients battling blood cancers and life-threatening blood diseases. Participants undergo a swab of the cheek to find out if they’re a match for a patient who needs a donor.
Aubrie’s family recruited friends, family members, coworkers and community members between the ages of 18 and 40 to join the Bone Marrow Registry to find a match for Aubrie. The family hosted drives at restaurants, schools, bars, colleges and places of work.
Aubrie said her favorite part of Be The Match was knowing that those who participated were helping save other people’s lives.
People also followed Aubrie’s well-being and the family’s needs through GoFundMe, where the family raised more than $12,000.
The support system from donors to swabbers kept Aubrie and her family going, according to Dina Pearson, Aubrie’s grandmother. Despite all the hardships, Aubrie’s family didn’t miss a beat as they kept growing with that support.
Dawson gave birth to her third child, Vincenzo “Vinnie” Hernandez; Pearson got a promotion at work as she balanced her career life and being there for Aubrie; Aubrie’s 2-year-old brother, Luciano “Louie” Hernandez, learned many important developments such as becoming potty-trained; and Aubrie continued to get straight As in an online school.
“I think it’s important for people to realize there has to be that support system because I don’t know how they would have done it without it,” Pearson said, tearing up.
Saving Aubrie: Best birthday present ever
After diagnosing Aubrie with severe aplastic anemia, Nakano’s next steps involved trying to salvage Aubrie’s failing bone marrow. Before turning to a transplant, Aubrie tried medication to teach the immune system how to behave again. The therapy helped her liver, but her bone marrow remained suppressed — leading to the decision to perform a transplant.
“This is not an easy decision,” Nakano said. “These are not easy things to commit to and put a young girl’s body through. And yet it’s something that’s necessary because this remains otherwise a life-threatening diagnosis.”
Dr. Laura McLaughlin, who specializes in non-malignant bone marrow transplant at Children’s Hospital Colorado, arranged for Aubrie to undergo a transplant on Nov. 1, 2023. The transplant was successful, and Aubrie now refers to the date as her “new birthday.”
Shortly after the transplant, Aubrie developed a serious infection due to cytomegalovirus (CMV) — a common virus that can cause infections in people with weakened immune systems. The infection did not respond well to antiviral medications.
McLaughlin, with the help of the bone marrow transplant research team at Children’s Hospital, enrolled Aubrie in a clinical trial utilizing immune cells donated by Pearson to help fight the CMV.
Pearson became one of the first people to undergo the trial, but she felt her purpose in life was to save her granddaughter. And on Pearson’s 53rd birthday, Dec. 28, she received the best present ever: the transfusion of her cells helped save Aubrie.
After two cell infusions, Aubrie’s CMV cleared and has not returned. Pearson has since dedicated her time to participating in a groundbreaking research study on cell transfer.
Nakano called the clinical trial “a balancing act” of bringing in cells that have been taught how to fight a virus to attack cells with the virus while also being careful not to harm fresh stem cells ingrafted from a transplant.
Aubrie’s body now makes blood cells and platelets. She still suffers from a mild weakened immune system, but she’s improved well beyond her condition in late 2022.
Aubrie and her family celebrate every milestone in her journey, big or small.
Two recent milestones include Aubrie’s graduation from elementary school and becoming mask-free after following guidelines similar to COVID-19. Her goal for the summer is to go swimming as much as possible — something she’s had to avoid due to her risk of infections.
Fighting with song and smiles
Despite Aubrie’s amazing medical journey, the young girl’s character is what stands out to Nakano.
During her months-long stay at Children’s Hospital, Aubrie created moments of joy and formed deep bonds with other patients and staff members. Hospital stays for Aubrie involved staying up late to make bracelets with her nurses or helping decorate the nurses’ stations for holidays.
Aubrie and her family experienced a clinical case of everything going wrong, facing complication after complication. But they avoided dwelling on what could happen and instead focused on what they wanted to happen, Dawson said.
Many in that situation would lose hope with the constant bad news, but the entire family had one of the strongest positive perspectives Nakano had ever seen — all thanks to Aubrie.
Aubrie said positive thoughts helped her during the hard and scary times.
“I try to think of positive things because if I just think about the negativity, then it’s going to be more scary and I’m not going to really be myself,” Aubrie said. “And I want to be myself.”
Aubrie’s pep impacted those around her. Her “genuine kindness” lifted the spirits of hospital staff, other patients and her family and sent a message to all the people who were rooting for her that everything was going to be OK, Nakano said.
Aubrie believes what happened to her is a good thing because of the memories she made and the people she met who have become a second family. Some of her favorite memories — such as getting her own nurse badge and a beautiful crochet wig when she lost her hair during chemo — don’t completely take away negative thoughts, but they helped her remain happy and optimistic.
The nurses and doctors also remained joyful despite a difficult clinical case because they looked forward to interactions with Aubrie, Nakano said. She always thought of others as she fought for her life.
Nakano called Aubrie “wise beyond her years” when sharing how she would keep a notebook titled, “Write your happy thoughts down” and hand it off to those she encountered throughout her stay.
He remembers Aubrie singing at their first appointment together, encouraging him to sing along. By the second day, the two were harmonizing “The Never Ending Story” from her favorite TV show, “Stranger Things.”
“I am a better provider for having cared for Aubrie,” Nakano said. “She shows you that you can weather that storm and come to the other side shinier.”
Aubrie’s lasting impact on others
A genuine, honest and good perspective makes a difference in a clinical outcome, a message Nakano wants to spread to other patients through Aubrie’s story. To do so, doctors nominated Aubrie as the patient ambassador, which goes to patients who have “displayed extraordinary strength and courage in the face of tremendous medical challenges,” the Children’s Hospital website said.
Ambassadors create a personal fundraising page to support an area of the hospital that means something to them as a way to give back and help other patients. Aubrie chose to support kids in the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.
“The medicine only takes you so far,” Nakano said. “To bring in humor … and positivity and the caring and the nurturing that she does for the rest of her family, you have to think that’s equal if not more important than what I can bring to the table as the physician.”
Aubrie’s venture at Children’s Hospital and the kind staff she encountered along the way have also helped her discover her dream job. She wants to bring her positive spirit and lived experience to a children’s hospital to help kids like her.
“I think she’s just grown,” Pearson said. “A good takeaway is that you can still grow in every aspect and just be thankful and humble because you’re not guaranteed the next minute.”
