A 15-year-old’s Fight Against Cancer

By Kristina Maimonis


Three years ago, Laura Bentley, then a 15-year-old from Cromwell Conn., fought the hardest battle of her life.

It started the night of the father-daughter dance at Mercy High School in Middletown, Conn. Bentley felt excruciating stomach and back pains so her father rushed her immediately to the emergency room at Middlesex Hospital.

After hours of testing, the doctors were unable to find the cause of her pain. Finally, on November 22, 2005, one week after the onset of her symptoms, the doctors performed a biopsy and diagnosed Bentley with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“I had no idea what that was,” Bentley said. “Finally, my Dad told me it was cancer and all I did was start crying.”

Each year, more than 66,000 new cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are diagnosed in the US. The five year survival rates for this disease in patients of Bentley’s age have increased steadily since 1975, reaching 90 percent in 2005.

Bentley immediately began intensive chemotherapy the following day because her tumors were so aggressive. She was allowed to return home for one last night before spending the next three weeks in the hospital.

“When I heard I had to stay for three weeks I thought, ‘What about school? What about my life,’” Bentley said. “Little did I know that the road ahead was going to be more than just three weeks in the hospital.”

That next morning, Bentley started her therapy. She felt sick all week and couldn’t remember much.

“What was even worse was the next day, I had to get a central line put in my chest,” Bentley said.

This central line had to be placed into a hole surgically opened in her chest.

“It was very traumatizing, especially during the dressing changes,” she said. “Every time the nurses would change it I felt sick to my stomach, but by the end, I could do it by myself.”

Traditionally, the Bentley family would gather at their home in Connecticut to celebrate Thanksgiving. That year, they celebrated Thanksgiving in her hospital room and even Laura’s extended family showed up.

After Thanksgiving, Bentley began an even more severe round of chemotherapy. Her red blood cell count had fallen to 4.2 percent when the average for a girl her age is 13 percent.

Bentley was then told she needed to have a plasmapheresis procedure which required her to go to the intensive care unit. Here, she had to have an additional line placed in the largest artery in her groin.

“It felt like someone had taken a pen and stabbed it into me because the catheter was so stiff that you couldn’t even sit. Your choices were to either lie down or stand, but I was too weak to stand so I had to lie down,” she said.

Christmas was now approaching and Bentley was worried she would have to spend her favorite holiday in the hospital. She was able to make it home just before Christmas Eve.

This was the first time Bentley had left the hospital since November. “I didn’t even know that it had snowed,” she said.

Bentley said being home was wonderful! “It was so nice to finally sleep in my own bed without being woken up,” she said, “and just having the comforts of my own home.”

“The best thing of all was the privacy,” she said. “At the hospital, if my mom or dad wasn’t in my room, it was either a doctor, nurse, resident, intern or someone.”

Christmastime though, soon became a struggle for her. Her hair had just begun to fall out.
“It killed me to see the pain in my child’s face when chunks of her hair would fall out onto her jacket or on her shirt,” said Mrs. Joanne Bentley, Laura’s mother.

Bentley’s first wig was a hip hat, which was then followed by a straight brown haired wig and then a third, blonde wig. These wigs were all such different looks from her brunette curls.

After the Christmas season, Bentley returned to the hospital for more procedures. She needed more medicine, Methotrexate, a type of chemotherapy that kills all reproducing cells.

Bentley suffered severe mouth irritation and found out that she was allergic to morphine, a common pain killer. “If I had to list the top three most painful things that happened to me they would be my initial stomach pains, the catheter in my groin, and the mouth sores,” Bentley said.
Bentley’s first negative PET scan came late in January, which showed no more active cancer cells in her body. It was exciting news but still forced more months of chemotherapy.

Bentley’s last inpatient chemo was on April 3, 2006 which was supposed to be her hospital release date but she contracted pneumonia and had to return once again to the hospital.

After a two week recovery, Laura returned for the last two months of school. “In those last two months, I did the best I had ever done in my high school career,” Bentley said.

She spent the summer hanging out with her friends and spending a lot of time with her family. “I just wanted to be a normal kid again,” she said.

Junior and senior year, Bentley ran a blood drive at her high school. She talked to all of the students about giving blood and informed them of why it was important.

“I couldn’t believe how happy she was considering what she had gona through,” said Katie Pearson, Bentley’s best friend. “She never stopped smiling.”

Bentley also organized the relay for life team for her high school and participated in a Radiothon for Connecticut Childrens’ Medical Center.

Her life had returned to normal as she finished high school disease free. Bentley eventually won the Connecticut Childrens’ Medical Center scholarship and is now a freshman at Stonehill College.

Bentley said she appreciates the small things in life now; she loves her hair, being able to shower, and sleep through the night. She is grateful for her family and friends and has built even stronger relationships with them all.

“It’s funny how one minute you can be having a great time dancing with your father at a school dance, and then the next minute something can happen that changes your life forever,” Bentley said.