Kansas City,
22
February
2016
|
10:28 AM
America/Chicago

Nurse & toddler's special bond provides hope

Maria & Emma have both been treated for hemangiomas

A 2-year-old girl has spent most of her life in and out of the hospital to treat a hemangioma, a vascular tumor on her face.

While at Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas in Overland Park, she met a nurse who had the same growth in the same exact place.

 

When Maria Olson first met Emma, she saw herself in the little girl. Olson had a hemangioma, a non-cancerous growth, consuming the left side of her face.

“It did take up a big part of the cheek, very bright red. It was very big, tennis ball size maybe,” she recalled.

The tumor is in the same place as Emma’s hemangioma, at least what’s left of it. What you see now is just scar tissue. That’s how the friendship between nurse and patient formed.

“Maria came in and said, 'oh my gosh, I have to meet Emma.' She has a hemangioma in the right same spot and I started looking at her lip and I wouldn’t have known it,” said mom Mariane Weinand.

See the full story via Fox 4.

Learn more about the services and clinics available at Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas.