Frankie Lewis knows what it’s like to fight for her life. She was only 12 years old when she was the sole survivor of a small plane crash in the dense jungle on the Baru volcano in Panama. Two local men found the plane and rescued her on Christmas day 2007 after she was trapped inside the aircraft’s fuselage and buried beneath luggage for more than 52 hours. The young girl was struggling to survive, suffering from organ failure, severe hypothermia, and extensive lacerations and burns all over her body. Once the rescue team was able to get her to the hospital, she continued to battle for her life, with doctors saying she would not have survived at the crash site much longer. Processing and overcoming that deep trauma would take months and years, but Frankie had no idea she would be fighting for her life once again in another battle—this time, against cancer.
Watch Frankie here.
In September 2022, Frankie was driving home from work in Austin, Texas and started having sharp chest pains—the active 27-year-old thought she was having a heart attack. Frankie immediately made an appointment with Harbor Health's internal medicine physician Dr. Luci Leykum, who started running tests and referred her to a few specialists as she looked for answers.
“Luci really was the quarterback of my entire experience,” said Harbor Health member Frankie Lewis. “Over the next year, I had multiple new symptoms like nerve pain, itchy skin, and severe fatigue. Through all the medical mysteries, Luci looked at me as a complete person, worked directly with multiple specialists, and never gave up.”
“The most serious issue started when Frankie started having respiratory issues and at times, struggled to breathe,” said Dr. Luci Leykum. “We started getting some imaging studies and there were some things that were not normal on her chest x-ray and on her CAT scan. I started calling colleagues who are specialists in lung diseases to get their input.”
A Time of Uncertainty
Imaging showed 75 percent of Frankie’s left lung was not functioning properly. Luci worked to get her in to see a trusted pulmonologist who ordered a biopsy. Behind the scenes, others on the Harbor Health team were working to streamline care, pushing to get quick answers from Frankie’s insurance company about coverage, and following up with specialists to gather information. “The member is part of the health team,” said registered nurse Jonathan Brewer. “They’re actually the leader of the team. As hard as Frankie was fighting and wanted to fight, we wanted to fight with her. So she led us into battle, and we grabbed our sword and shield and went right behind her.”
“One week after the biopsy, the team was still waiting on the results,” said Leykum. “It’s so hard to wait, but we knew it was important to continue communicating while we were all waiting and allow Frankie and her family to discuss their fears and feelings with us.”
Understanding the weight of the situation, Luci herself called the pathologist on a Friday, not wanting Frankie to cope with uncertainty into the weekend. Luci got at least part of the diagnosis and decided to share it with Frankie and her family. It was lymphoma – a type of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system. Within a few more days, more detailed pathology results revealed it was an aggressive rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma called primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL).
“Luci got on a virtual Zoom meeting with us so she could explain all she had learned about this rare lymphoma, how it could be treated, and what hospitals and doctors were best suited for me,” said Frankie. “She said only 3 percent of all lymphoma cases were this type, but she knew researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston were already working on treatments.”
A Change of Plans and a New Direction
With Frankie’s health deteriorating quickly, Luci made calls to MD Anderson to get her an appointment within days of the diagnosis, and Frankie agreed to be one of the first people in a new clinical trial. The next six months brought several long painful rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Frankie and her fiance Tyler made the difficult decision to postpone their wedding that had been planned for not long after her diagnosis. Tyler and Frankie’s sister, Rose, spent countless nights in the hospital and at her home, comforting her through the nausea, headaches, and exhaustion.
“Luci was our point of contact for any clinical explanation we needed,” said Frankie’s sister, Rose Lewis. “She turned over every rock and helped us understand what was happening during those difficult times. She even cried with us when she told us about the diagnosis. The entire Harbor Health team showed us a whole different level of care.”
Even before the clinical trial treatment was completed, doctors told Frankie her cancer was in remission. She slowly started feeling more like herself again. By the time the entire series of chemotherapy treatments was finished, the wedding plans were back on, delayed by one year. She was a survivor – once again.
“This is a club you never want to be a part of,” said Frankie. “It’s incredibly unfair. I thought I had my ‘why me?’ moment after the plane crash. I guess you’re not promised just one.”
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