Current:Home > MarketsWill Sage Astor-They had the same name. The same childhood cancer. They lost touch – then reunited. -FundPrime
Will Sage Astor-They had the same name. The same childhood cancer. They lost touch – then reunited.
TradeEdge Exchange View
Date:2025-04-11 01:30:15
Several decades ago,Will Sage Astor two New Orleans children developed the same disease: acute lymphoblastic leukemia. But before that they shared something else in common: The same name.
Dorian Scott, 40, and Dorionne Scott, 37, were patients of the same oncologist at Children's Hospital of New Orleans. The office regularly mixed up their appointments. Was the boy coming in? Or the girl? The two shared no blood relatives, "we just came across each other every so often as young kids," Dorian Scott recalls.
Little did they knew their paths would cross again as adults in a random, feel-good movie kind of twist – the story you hope you can talk about 30 years after surviving cancer.
In case you missed:This woman is living with terminal cancer. She's documenting her story on TikTok.
A scary (but hopeful) diagnosis
The two led parallel lives as children. Dorian's belly grew larger than normal; then came the seizures. Dorionne felt sluggish and lethargic at her 3rd birthday party; then came the high fever. Both eventually received a leukemia diagnosis.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia – the most common leukemia in children – makes up approximately 30% of all pediatric cancers, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. It has one of the highest cure rates, though that doesn't take away from the trauma of being diagnosed with cancer so young, either.
Both remember the portacath, the chemotherapy, the doctors appointments. Dorian wore a hat in his first and second grade school pictures since he didn't have any hair. Still: "It never hindered me from accomplishing a lot and participating in sports and stuff like that even though in my younger days, I did have ports in my chest for whenever I had to do blood work." Both made it through and remain in remission.
Their lives took them in different directions – until they wound up working at the same hospital together.
Important:At 25 she found out she had the breast cancer gene. Now, she's grieving motherhood.
'A full-circle moment'
Dorian grew up to be a surgical technician and even was on staff at Children's Hospital himself for a decade before transferring to Ochsner Clearview in New Orleans, a new facility, in 2023. There, Dorionne was hired for the front desk as a surgical scheduler.
Dorionne first noticed something amiss at her interview for the job. Her interviewer was expecting a man. "I wonder why he's looking confused like that," she remembers thinking. But Dorionne didn't think much of it even after meeting all her new coworkers.
The same mix-ups started happening again – this time with bills erroneously sent to his email – and Dorian suspected this was the same girl he knew as a kid. One day he asked if she ever went to Children's Hospital. What, no, that's a weird question, I'm an adult, Dorionne thought. She explained she did as a kid – and Dorian explained he did too. Leukemia.
She threw her arms around him in what Dorionne calls "a full-circle moment." The reunion sparked a unique connection where "we just developed this brother-sister relationship," Dorian adds; both have kids themselves now. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell even recognized both for their 30th anniversary of cancer survivorship in proclamations.
While Dorionne no longer works there – she's now a mental health crisis responder – the pair have stayed in contact. It's safe to say they won't forget each other now.
As Dorian says: "It's just a blessing that we both still here, we both can tell our story."
veryGood! (7518)
Related
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- U.S. vetoes United Nations resolution calling for immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza
- Lawyers for Malcolm X family say new statements implicate NYPD, feds in assassination
- Guilty plea from the man accused of kidnapping a 9-year-old girl from an upstate New York park
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- Haley says embryos 'are babies,' siding with Alabama court ruling that could limit IVF
- A beloved fantasy franchise is revived with Netflix’s live-action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’
- Tennessee firm hired kids to clean head splitters and other dangerous equipment in meat plants, feds allege
- Buckingham Palace staff under investigation for 'bar brawl'
- Motocross Star Jayden “Jayo” Archer Dead at 27
Ranking
- US appeals court rejects Nasdaq’s diversity rules for company boards
- Maleesa Mooney Case: Suspect Facing Murder Charges for Death of Model Found in Refrigerator
- I Took a Deep Dive into Lululemon’s We Made Too Much Section – Here Are the New Finds & Hidden Gems
- 'I'll send a plane': Garth Brooks invites Travis Kelce to sing 'Low Places' at his new bar
- Kylie Jenner Shows Off Sweet Notes From Nieces Dream Kardashian & Chicago West
- New Hampshire House rejects allowing voluntary waiver of gun ownership rights
- Trial to determine if Texas school’s punishment of a Black student over his hair violates new law
- Americans reporting nationwide cellular outages from AT&T, Cricket Wireless and other providers
Recommendation
This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
A huge satellite hurtled to Earth and no one knew where it would land. How is that possible?
A second Alabama IVF provider pauses parts of its program after court ruling on frozen embryos
Porsha Williams Shares Athleisure You'll Love if You Enjoy Working Out or Just Want To Look Like You Do
Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
‘Little dark secret': DEA agent on trial accused of taking $250K in bribes from Mafia
Slayings of tourists and Colombian women expose the dark side of Medellin’s tourism boom
Horoscopes Today, February 21, 2024