Briana Donis has an extremely rare and deadly form of anemia. But that hasn’t stopped her from pulling yoga poses like a champ.
Meet Briana. She's a 19-year-old from Houston, Texas, who has a rare and deadly disease called aplastic anemia.
She was diagnosed with the disease at 18, after noticing that she was bruising a lot, and becoming tired rather easily.
Courtesy Briana Donis
Though she's looking super cute and #HospitalGlam here, aplastic anemia is a very serious disease that affects only 1 or 2 in a million people.
Aplastic anemia impacts the body's red and white blood cells and the blood's platelets, and prevents the body's bone marrow stem cells from producing enough new blood cells. The only treatment for the condition is chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.
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In December, Briana received a bone marrow transplant, but it unfortunately failed.
Now she's been left with a severely compromised immune system. Because of all the chemotherapy she's gone through in order to prepare for her transplant, she has NO white blood cells in her body right now, leaving her susceptible to disease.
She's supposed to receive a second bone marrow transplant sometime this month. To keep her alive and healthy, her family and supporters are looking for donations of white blood cells.
They're also hoping to raise funds to help the family because Briana's mother — the primary breadwinner — had to take an unpaid leave of absence from her job while she's in treatment. Briana's condition will require that she live in isolation once she's out of the hospital, so the family now has two apartment rents to pay.
