Community Corner

UPDATED: Fate of Child's Final Wish Could Be Decided Tonight

Savannah Sachen, who lost her fight with cancer, had dreamed of her family opening an organic ranch.

Editor's Note: Not enough delegates were present at the Aliso Viejo Community Association vote to decide on the land lease for Savannah's Organic Ranch. Watch for more updates.

Savannah Sachen had an "owie."

That’s all she ever knew it to be.

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At age 5, Savannah was diagnosed with a rare form of cardiac sarcoma—cancer of the heart. Savannah’s mother, Lisa Sachen, always told her she had a special heart.

“Of all the places for her cancer to be, it was on her heart,” said Lisa, a resident of Aliso Viejo. “It felt like God touched her heart.”

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An organic ranch bearing Savannah’s name, a place to be built in her memory, may one day become a part of Aliso Viejo.

Savannah

Lisa Sachen said that from a young age, Savannah cared when others were sad and often put the needs of others before her own.

“She emanated love,” Lisa said. “She had an old-soul quality about her and a spirituality that didn’t come from her dad and I. We weren’t particularly spiritual at the time.”

 Savannah loved nature and animals and developed an interest in organic farming, according to her parents. She said that when she grew up she wanted to have her own ranch where people could buy healthy, organic foods.

A drawing hanging today in the office of Joe Sachen, Savannah’s father, shows what her ranch would look like. A cow with long eyelashes and dark black spots begins her list. Each figure in her drawing is labeled.


 "One Cowe”
“Four rabits”
“Two ducks”
“Three hens”
“Christmas trees”
“Pumkins”
“A lake”
“A farm house”
 “A gate"


She drew the list while undergoing treatment in the hospital.

Savannah’s Fight

Savannah had two open-heart surgeries that led to complications. Lisa Sachen said her daughter’s esophagus was cut during surgery and the doctors didn’t realize it.

About a week later her body was septic with infection.

She couldn’t eat or drink anything until her esophagus healed. She was fed a milk and sugar mixture through a gastric tube, and it was making her feel much worse. She coughed all the time and was weak.

To make her feel better, Lisa and Joe looked into organic foods.

They found a chef who helped them make an organic soup mixture that was condensed, grinded and put through a strainer so it could be injected through a tube.

The morning after, Savannah wasn’t coughing.

“The very next morning she woke and said, ‘I feel great. I’m not coughing.’ That was a turning point,” Joe Sachen said.

Lisa, mother to three other children, beams with memories of her daughter. She said she turned her IV stand into a scooter during her stay in the hospital.

Savannah was watching her prepare food one day for the others.

She couldn’t eat normal food.

“Savannah, do you want to go play?” Lisa asked, offering to play with her while the other kids ate.

“No, Mommy, I don't mind.” 

She scooted away for a little bit and came back with some plastic toy food.

“See, I’ll eat with you,” Savannah said.

In February 2005 Savannah's cancer entered remission. The cancer was gone.

“When she was cancer-free we were the happiest family on earth. We felt we dodged a bullet, so to speak,” Joe Sachen said.

Two years later, Savannah’s "owie" returned.

Savannah’s Organic Ranch

The Sachens went for an annual test.

When it came back it was the second worst news of Joe’s life.

“It wasn’t good,” he said. “The doctors didn’t give it much of a chance.”

Joe and Lisa took their 8-year-old daughter to lunch to tell her. They left the decision of chemotherapy up to her. At first, Savannah refused the idea of treatment, says her father.

After 30 minutes she changed her mind—on one condition.

“'I’ll do it if you guys get me my ranch.”

They hugged and said they would.

“That was a rough one,” Joe said, tears in his eyes.

Six months later, Savannah said, ‘I love you,’ went to bed and never woke up. She died May 18, 2007.

“It was almost as if she knew. She came to do what she needed to accomplish. She knew we were going to keep our promise that we had made to her. I have to look back, and as a mom I had always prayed for a really strong faith. I wanted in my heart. I didn’t just want it because I live in Orange County and everyone goes to church. I wanted what I saw in so many people, but I would pray and I would say, ‘Please, Lord, don’t ever test me with my children, because I don’t think I could survive it. Sometimes these days I wonder if she was sent to me to give me faith. Because I did survive it and I survive it still because of her. She gives me strength. Strength to fulfill her dream or—and this sounds so clichéd—make the world a better place. Or to make the place a world where there’s healthier children, and that would be a better world.”


Today Lisa and Joe Sachen work to keep their promise.

Savannah’s Organic Ranch, a foundation, brings DVD players and support to children in the hospital.

Savannah's Organic Ranch, an actual ranch, could one day be a part of Aliso Viejo.

A piece of land off of Wood Canyon Drive—the ideal location, according to her parents, for Savannah's one cow, four rabbits, two ducks, three hens, Christmas trees, pumpkins, a lake, a farmhouse and a gate.

Tonight Aliso Viejo Community Association delegates will vote to either approve or deny AVCA's recommendation to allow Savannah's Organic Ranch to start building on community association land. The vote is open to delegates only and closed to the public. Check in for delegates is at 5 p.m. and the vote begins at 7 p.m.

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Watch for more coverage of Savannah's Organic Ranch and the outcome of tonight's vote. Hear the plans for the ranch, the efforts of the foundation and more about the special little girl.

For more photos of Savannah's Organic Ranch, check out our View Finder slideshow.


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