Patient stories: A fever that wouldn’t break. A worried mother. Prisma Health was here.

Every parent on earth has worried over a child’s fever. For Kenzie Mullet, her 4-year-old daughter Rosie, who she described as a princess-and-glitter-loving wild child, kept dealing with constipation and fevers that didn’t seem like such a big deal … until the fever never quite seemed to break.

After weeks of nonstop low-grade fevers and negative tests for viral or bacterial infection, as well as a visit to the emergency room in their local Abbeville, Kenzie was at the end of her rope.

She knew deep down that something was wrong with her little girl, and she wanted answers.

A visit to an urgent care in Greenwood turned out to be the turning point she’d been hoping for. The nurse practitioner there advised her to take Rosie to Prisma Health Children’s Hospital in Greenville, where they found a grapefruit-sized mass on Rosie’s kidney, along with other smaller masses.

She was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor, or nephroblastoma, the most common type of kidney cancer in children, usually diagnosed between ages 2 and 5. It typically forms a single abdominal mass in one kidney, though it can occasionally affect both. With modern treatment, it has a high cure rate.

Rosie was immediately admitted to the hospital and underwent surgery two days later with surgeon Robert Gates, MD, and oncologist Alan Anderson, MD, attending. When Rosie began what became eight months of chemotherapy treatment, pediatric hematologist/oncologist Rebecca Cook, MD, was right there as their primary oncologist, ensuring Rosie and her family could rely on a familiar, friendly face.

While initially hopeful the tumor had been caught in time, the Mullet family was rocked by the news that a new spot had been found on Rosie’s lung, indicating the tumor had spread. Rosie had another surgery to remove a nodule from her lung and began radiation treatment.

Today, Rosie is about halfway through her newest round of treatment. Kenzie noted that her instincts were telling her something was wrong from the beginning, and she hopes other parents can learn from her experience.

“Trust your gut,” Kenzie said. “Trust that mom instinct. If you know something is off, push to make sure your child is seen. I feel like as a mom, you know your child better than anybody else. Sometimes you’ll have to go a little further and really advocate for your child.”

Kenzie has been able to lean on Rosie’s care team not just to stay informed and prepared for each step of the process, but for the support and compassion they show the whole family.

“Rosie’s care has been phenomenal,” said Kenzie. “Not only were Rosie’s doctors and nurses during that initial process kind and compassionate, but we also really feel like they all try to know Rosie personally to this day. Early on, Rosie was very timid and shy. She was very scared about having her port access and all the poking and prodding that goes with these kinds of things. The way Dr. Cook, the nurses and the Child Life specialists are positive with her has made this experience so much better for her. It’s a great team.”

Prisma Health stepped in to make sense of a child’s mystery symptoms, helping her family find their way to the care she needed, and we’re still standing right alongside the Mullet family today. After all, we’re not just here to heal. We’re here for good.