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Online Vigil Honors Teen Facing Death

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN

sackerman@tampatrib.com

Published: October 24, 2008

10/1/08

We Need A Miracle!!!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We are requesting you to please join with us for a week of fasting and prayer for Carli. Our meeting with the Doctors today was not good. The Doctors have made it clear there is not much they can do ...

Edith

Edith and Kevin Slack were preparing for their 16-year-old daughter to die last Friday.

Diagnosed with leukemia just three months ago, Carli Slack's cancer was in remission when she contracted a deadly fungus that now eats at her organs.

Doctors gave her parents no hope, but Edith and Kevin didn't listen.

They prayed.

And they kept a vigil online. So many people cared about Carli, the family started a Web site to give daily updates.

10/15/08

We have been told today that our daughter Carli is going to die. Not by leukemia, not by the surgery, but by this fungus Mucor. ... There is nothing more they can do. Survival rate at this point of progression is zero. There have been no survivors of this. The question we have been asked is how we want to prepare for it. ... Carli needs one more miracle. We need one more miracle.

Kevin

Unable to do what only God might, family and friends are collecting donations to help the Tampa family pay for expenses and, soon, a funeral.

Slack, a 41-year-old social worker, youth minister and father of four, started a new job two weeks ago as a consultant for the Sylvia Thomas Center, an agency that helps families with adoptive children.

His wife, Edith, 40, sells home, life and auto insurance, but she's not sure if she still has a job. She hasn't left Carli's bedside since the teen was admitted to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in July.

Neither Edith nor Kevin could afford private health insurance, they say. Edith kicks herself each time she thinks about waiting for Carli's test results from the public health clinic instead of just taking her to the emergency room.

4:30 a.m. 10/17/08

Tonight at about 12:30 Carli was put on a ventilator. At this point her organs are starting to shut down. She is expected to pass away maybe sometime in the next 24 hours. I just want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayer. It seems that God just has other plans.

Kevin

Soon, doctors tell the couple, there will be a funeral. It's impossible for the family to imagine life with out Carli. Her sister, 10-year-old Cayla, is counting on a cure.

Little brother Christian creates a Web site for "Carli Marli" where family and friends post messages.

Carli is blessed with many friends, but her best one is her older sister, Cassandra.

The two attend Plant High School, where Carli is a junior.

When she first heard she had leukemia, Carli didn't think about dying, her dad said. She was worried about the effects of chemotherapy.

"I can't lose my hair!" Carli insisted.

Her leukemia was the kind that had a 98 percent cure rate. It was never supposed to end up like this.

12:30 a.m. 10/21/08

120 hours after being put on the ventilator. Seven days after being told Carli will die and has no chance of survival.

We are still here.

Kevin

He has said goodbye to Carli four times now - the last the hardest as he and Edith watched their little girl struggle for a breath.

"I didn't want my baby to suffer anymore," Kevin said.

But it was too awful to watch. They weren't ready to let her go. Not that way. A week later, Carli hangs on.

The latest post, on Thursday, noted Carli was breathing on her own, though the prognosis hasn't changed.

"She's still fighting," Kevin said. "We can't give up without a fight."

LEARN MORE

Go to www.carlislack.page.tl to read updates on her condition, check out pictures and sign a guest book.

WANT TO HELP?

The Sylvia Thomas Center is collecting donations on behalf of the Slack family. For information, call (813) 651-3150.

Researcher Stephanie Pincus contributed to this report. Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144.

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