Primary Children’s Hospital helps Pocatello family
The Ashcraft family has made Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City their home away from home, since both Olive Ashcraft and Lola Ashcraft are fighting rare health complications.
With five kids in the house, things never slow down in the Ashcraft household.
“Would we decide five again? I don’t know if we would decide five again,” said Camille Ashcraft.
In their kitchen on a weekday afternoon, both Richard Ashcraft and Camille were making root beer floats for their kids. However, the two always have more on their mind than all their kids having a root beer float. Especially with Olive and Lola.
With Olive, they first thought she had a birth injury.
“When she was 4 months old, we noticed she was starting to– her body was just acting kind of funny,” Camille said. “She held her head kind of at a weird angle and her arms were always stiff.”
After seeing two different doctors, they were sent to Primary Children’s. It was there Camille found out Olive had a brain tumor that went down her spine. They scheduled surgery the next day. Richard was in Boise due to a new job.
“(She said), you got to get down here because I don’t know if she’ll make it through the night,” Richard said.
They didn’t think they would have Olive for a year, but eight years of tumor removal surgeries and chemotherapy sessions later, “you would never know she has anything going on,” Camille said.
With Lola, a genetic test at Primary Children’s revealed she had angelman syndrome. It’s a rare genetic disorder that causes developmental and neurological disabilities.
Doctors told the Ashcrafts that Lola might never walk. Today, Lola can not only walk, but run, too, thanks to leg botox injections at Primary Children’s.
Like Olive, Lola has needed a lot of help over the years. She received a variety of therapies several times a week, as well as a nurse to help with everyday needs.
Richard and Camille keep all Primary Children’s and health care workers close.
“I plan on having our neurologist at Olive’s wedding. I mean, he’s getting a wedding invitation,” Camille said. “They’re who our family knows, it’s who we care about. It’s who cares about us. I mean, they’ve become more than just doctors and therapists, they’re the people in our lives that matter.”
Despite the circumstances, Camille asserts the Ashcrafts are lucky.
“We’re lucky-ish,” she said. “In the circumstances that we were dealt, we’re lucky.”
