Surgical Oncology Center

Harper and Tumor Resection

Hope for Harper: Second Opinion Brings West Virginia Family to Cincinnati Children’s

Just a few weeks before her first day of kindergarten, Harper began experiencing symptoms of a urinary tract infection (UTI). 

Her mom, Juli, wasn’t too concerned. Harper had been treated for a UTI in the spring and another one earlier in the summer. Juli had attributed them to Harper learning to “hold it” and take scheduled bathroom breaks while at school.

But this time, when Juli took Harper to the doctor, the pediatrician said she wanted Harper to see a kidney specialist, just to make sure something else wasn’t causing them.

The kidney specialist requested that Harper have an ultrasound before the appointment. It was scheduled for a Friday, which was also Harper’s first day of kindergarten. The following Monday, Juli received a call from Harper’s pediatrician. “She told me they didn’t know anything yet, but the ultrasound had shown a mass above Harper’s kidney,” Juli said.

After that, everything “got really serious, really quickly,” she added.

The next day, Juli and her husband, D.F., took Harper to the emergency room near their home in Charleston, WV. Harper was admitted, but “lots of things weren’t going the right way,” Juli said, including an MRI that kept getting pushed back. “It was just one misstep after another.” 

Finally, Harper had an MRI that confirmed the tumor. But while the pediatric oncologist at the hospital told Juli they wouldn’t know if the tumor was cancerous until they surgically removed it, the pediatric surgeon told her nothing needed to be done right away, and they should come back in six months.

“That wasn’t good enough for me,” Juli said. 

Finding a Team Approach to Care at Cincinnati Children’s

Harper’s pediatrician recommended that Juli and D.F. get a second opinion at Cincinnati Children’s, so they decided to call. A little more than a week later, they made the four-hour drive to meet with Kate Somers, MD, an oncologist in the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute (CBDI).

“From that moment on, everything was amazing,” Juli said. “We walked in and sat down, and Dr. Somers said, ‘The room’s going to get kind of full,’ then introduced us to everyone who would be part of Harper’s care team. I felt so relieved. I didn’t second-guess anything. I knew we were in the best place with the best people.”

Dr. Somers notes that getting families answers as quickly as possible is a priority at Cincinnati Children’s.

“By the time people are coming here for a second opinion, they often already feel like they’re behind and stressed about the lack of information,” she said. “My goal, in collaboration with our pediatric surgical oncology group, is to be able to have a comprehensive meeting at that first visit. Even if we don’t have all the answers yet, we can introduce them to everyone on the team and show them how, as a group, we’re going to come up with a plan for their child.”

Minimally Invasive Surgical Options

One of the team members the family met that day was Juan Pablo Gurria, MD, MSc, a pediatric surgeon and director of surgical critical care in the Division of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery.

He talked to Juli and D.F. about performing a robotically assisted surgery to remove the tumor, explaining it would mean smaller incisions, a faster recovery and a reduced risk of complications for Harper.

“What robotic surgery offers to patients is out of this world,” Dr. Gurria said. “It’s not something every institution is able to provide to families because it requires specialized training, but it’s something we were able to offer to Harper.”

The family and care team agreed on the plan, and Dr. Gurria performed the surgery about a month later, telling Juli and D.F. it would likely take about four hours. When Juli’s phone rang two hours after surgery started, though, she was scared something had gone wrong.

“Juli’s face was white when I came in to talk to them, I remember,” Dr. Gurria said. “But I immediately told her that Harper was doing great, and you could see the color come back. I always try to give parents that reassurance right away because nothing matters more to them at that moment.”

In fact, Harper’s recovery was “exceptional,” Dr. Gurria said, noting he was able to remove the entire tumor in half the time it would have taken if he’d performed open surgery.

Harper spent a few days at the hospital recovering, but once the pathology report came back that the tumor was a ganglioneuroblastoma—a solid tumor that developed in her adrenal glands but hadn’t spread—the family headed home to Charleston.

Putting Life in Perspective

Today, Harper wears her (minimal) scars as a badge of honor, showing them off to people and telling them about how the doctor “fixed” her. She also tells her friends about all the fun things she did when she was at Cincinnati Children’s, like painting. And from time to time, she gets to go back to the “big hospital” to see Andrew Strine, MD, MPH, a pediatric urologist who is helping to investigate Harper’s recurrent UTIs, which were unrelated to her cancer.

Juli’s scars aren’t physical like Harper’s, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. As Harper prepared to start first grade this fall, Juli struggled with the fact that—just a year ago—her biggest concern as a mom was what Harper and her older sister, Haydon, would wear on their first day of school.

“It put what matters in life into perspective for me,” she said.

Juli says she’s forever grateful to Cincinnati Children’s for taking care of Harper—and their whole family.

“At the very beginning, Dr. Somers told me that she had no doubt that we’d get to send Harper’s high school graduation announcement,” she said. “That meant the world to me, and I’ll never forget her telling me that. Because life had flipped upside down so quickly, but I knew we could get through anything as long as we knew that at the end of the day, Harper would be OK.”

“Juli and D.F. are examples of parents who never stopped until they felt their child was in the right place,” said Dr. Somers. “I would encourage all families to make sure they’re comfortable with their care team’s approach. There are a lot of things that all children’s hospitals and children’s-based medical providers can do well, but there are certain things—particularly in the world of pediatric oncology—that only a few centers can do excellently. And when it’s your child, you need to make sure you’re in a place where you can get excellent care with a team that understands your child first, but also your family.”

(Published August 2025)