2-year-old undergoing experimental therapy defies the odds

Tenley Johnson turned 2 recently, and for her, it was probably no big deal. A room of people sang to her. Balloons bobbed around her tiny body. She slurped on a stick of candy nearly as long as her arm. There were presents and cake and sparkly shoes. But her mom sat just a few feet from the girl’s hospital bed on June 17 and said what a lot of people were thinking: “It’s a huge deal.” Lacretia Johnson has heard more than once that her young daughter was going to die.