Owen returns to Larson Heights School
Charles H. Featherstone/The Columbia Basin Herald Nine-year-old Michael Owen, with his mother Perlita behind him, returned to Larson Heights Elementary on Wednesday following nearly a year of medical treatments for aplastic anemia and a bone marrow transplant.
Charles H. Featherstone/The Columbia Basin Herald All of the students and faculty of Larson Heights Elementary gathered in the gym to welcome Michael Owen (front row, center, in the black shirt) back after nearly a year of treatment for aplastic anemia and recovery from a bone marrow transplant.
MOSES LAKE — The students at Larson Heights Elementary had hoped to go outdoors to celebrate.
But with the wind howling and the snow drifting, it was simply too cold. So they made do with the gym.
So as they have several times in the last year, they gathered for a group photograph to “Stand With Michael,” and show eight-year-old Michael Owen, who has been battling aplastic anemia and is slowly recovering from a bone marrow transplant, that he is not alone.
And Wednesday marked Michael’s first day back at school in nearly a year.
“It’s nine months since the bone marrow transplant,” said Michael’s mother Prelita Owen, a fourth-grade teacher at Larson Heights Elementary. “Usually, it takes a year to recover that much.”
“It’s amazing that he’s back,” said 10-year-old Emily Smith, a fourth-grader in the class taught by Michael’s mother Prelita.
Owen was diagnosed with aplastic anemia a year ago, a condition in which bone marrow simply does not produce enough blood cells. Michael then received a bone marrow transplant at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where he recovered for several months, his mother close at hand.
“We stayed at the Ronald MacDonald House while he was treated in the Seattle Cancer Care Unit,” Prelita Owen said. “I was out of school from January to June, and I pretty much lived in Seattle.”
Owen said she’s extremely grateful that so many people across the Moses Lake School District donated sick leave to her so that she was able to take the time needed to be with her son while he was in the hospital and not miss any pay.
“It’s been good the whole school has been so supportive,” she said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.