9-month-old fights for her life at Phoenix Children's Hospital

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Words of hope and encouragement brighten the walls of a special room at Phoenix Children's Hospital and the positivity takes the edge off the machines and medicine, which is something 9-month-old Presley Knox and her family need in the fight to save a young life.

"You know, until you're faced with it, you really don't think about it and now, I can never stop thinking about it," Liz Knox said.

Mothers Liz and Laurie will never forget the day they saw the rare, malignant brain tumor that had spread after weeks of misdiagnosis by other doctors.

"Just.. believing that she'll be OK makes me positive... it's very hard," Laurie Knox said. "I worry about her every day... and just keeping my strength to be here and then go home and be a different mom."

Laurie is a different kind of mom to their five other children. Their family is made up of three sets of twins with their youngest child, Presley, and her brother.

Two brain surgeries and chemotherapy treatments later, 99 percent of Presley's tumor has been safely removed, but the fight is far from over.

"What the transplant really is... is a rescue," Dr. Michael Etzl said.

Dr. Etzl at PCH has a unique plan for Presley's remission. It's focused on the bone marrow, instead of radiation that would cause permanent damage to Presley's young body.

"You give very high doses of chemo... which would normally, really suppress and wipe out their bone marrow, then you rescue them with their own bone marrow," he said.

It's a treatment that starts in a few weeks with family, friends and an entire hospital praying for the best. As Presley's story continues to spread, those extra positive thoughts, Liz says, gives them strength to fight on.

"She has overcome so much," she said. "She has come beyond the odds and my faith and my heart tell me she's going to survive,"