CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio — A little girl from Chagrin Falls is fighting the battle of her life, but she’s doing it all with a smile.
In March, 23-month-old McKenna Kranek was diagnosed with a rare lung cancer. There are only 25 to 50 cases diagnosed in the U.S. a year. Her parents are now spreading an important message of advocacy to other parents.
McKenna Kranek is just like every toddler. She loves M&Ms, swinging on swing sets, and taking stroller rides. However, there’s something that makes her different, for now.
“Her shine has been what’s carried us,” said McKenna's father, Bryan Kranek.
In March, after a fever that wouldn’t break and some blood testing, Bryan said doctors found a cancerous mass the size of a baseball in her lung.
“It’s every parent's worst nightmare,” said Kranek. “They said not only is it cancer, we have already reached out to St. Jude and we already looked at other places because this is very rare. She’s going to need the best of the best for this.”
McKenna, who is just shy of 2, was diagnosed with Pleuropulmonary Blastoma, also known as PPB. Her physician, Cleveland Clinic Children’s pediatric oncologist Matteo Trucco, said it’s one of the rarest forms of childhood cancer in the world.
“When we encounter something this rare, you have to kinda start digging and searching literature and reaching out to colleagues across the world, quite frankly,” Trucco added. “That's exactly what we did.”
Luckily for McKenna, a team of highly experienced doctors was right in her backyard and developed a treatment plan.
“It just so happens, we have not just the surgeon, the oncologist, but also the pathologist who has experience with these tumors, that kind of already had some idea of what to do,” Trucco added.
Doctors removed the mass in her lung and one of her ovaries. She’s currently undergoing chemotherapy to hopefully eliminate the remaining cancer. Bryan said he and his wife Meggy haven’t had much time to process.
“We have two young kids, and we are dealing with everything day to day,” Bryan added. “Someday, it will hit us, and hopefully it will be when we tell McKenna what happened in her life, years down the road.”
The Kraneks now have a message to other parents if something as common as a fever just doesn't seem right.
“You have to be the one stepping up and being the advocate for your child,” Bryan added. “Luckily Meggy trusted her intuition and pushed forward in saying we need to get this done, we need to dig deeper.”
McKenna is on her fourth week into her 36-week-long chemo journey, and she turns 2 in June. The community, though, continues rallying behind the Kranek’s with fundraisers. If you'd like to contribute to Kranek's meal chain click here and click here to access their GoFundMe page. McKenna's journey is also on Caring Bridge if you'd like to follow for health updates.
