Overview
- Hours after giving birth on May 25, 2024 at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, tests showed a white-blood-cell count of 131,000 per microliter, leading to a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia with the rare Inversion 3 mutation.
- Her treatment has included multiple rounds of chemotherapy, CAR-T clinical trials, and two stem-cell transplants — first using cells from her sister Rose and later from an unrelated donor — followed by relapses.
- Complications have been severe, including an Epstein–Barr virus episode that damaged her kidneys and extended hospitalizations at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
- She criticizes HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for cutting mRNA vaccine research and NIH funding, arguing the decisions undermine cancer research and clinical trials that patients rely on.
- The essay underscores her parents’, siblings’ and husband’s support in caring for her two young children, and it was published on the 62nd anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.