The Johnson Family

My name is Daynique Johnson. My daughter Zy'Aira Johnson was born January 12, 2023 a perfectly healthy baby. On August 26th 2023, she became sick. I had to take her into the clinic and the ER multiple times before anyone was listening to me that there was something wrong. All the providers had to tell me that it was just an upper respiratory infection, but I can tell that it was much more. Finally I took her to the ER on September 3. She received a CT scan, and it showed inflammation in the brain of cerebellum fluid. The neurosurgeon doctor on call was contacted at Mayo in Rochester Minnesota. Zy’Aira was flown by helicopter to the Mary Brigh hospital. She was taken into surgery right away to get a brain shunt put in externally. She then received an MRI after the brain shunt was placed. On the MRI it showed that she had a stroke on her left side but her right side. It also showed spots on her brain and lesions on her spinal cord. She started having seizures as well.

My perfectly healthy baby has cancer on not only her brain but her. We were in the PICU for 16 days. They were testing a cerebellum fluid to try to figure out what type of cancer she had. After so many days of not getting any answers from the fluid, they decided to do a biopsy on her spinal cord. Once a piece of tissue from her spinal cord was sent to pathology it took an additional five days to finally get some answers. Zy’Aira was diagnosed on September 8th with a rare brain tumor called Glioneuromal. Her tumor is low-grade thankfully. She received chemotherapy treatment once a week two hours away from where we live. She has a minimum of a year of chemo treatments. Due to Zy’Aira’s health condition I am unable to work. Before Zy’Aira became sick, I was going to nursing school and working at a nursing home as a CNA. I am a single mother of three children. I have an 11-year-old son. His name is Terrence. I have my two girls Laeona that is six years old and Zy’Aira that is one! I have never been the person to seek help. I’ve always worked for everything to provide for my children and myself. Anything at this time will help and of course is greatly appreciated. Thank you