How Demario Davis' Daughter Is Uplifting Spirits At Ochsner Children's Hospital

Demario Davis' daughter has been through a lot, to say the least. However, Carly-Faith, Demario and his wife Tamela and her are using their experiences to help uplift others.

Demario Davis, his wife Tamela and Carly-Faith. / John Hendrix | Saints News Network

Kids are resilient. Even if things are tough and the hand they were dealt wasn’t ideal, they make the most of it. A few of us got to see it firsthand at Ochsner Children’s Hospital in New Orleans on Monday afternoon.

Demario Davis, his wife Tamela and their jovial and entertaining daughter Carly-Faith visited the Children's Hospital to present seven different children a host of gifts from their holiday wish list. All of the children got to meet and interact with the Davis family, with 5-year-old Carly-Faith leading the way.

Dr. Corey Falcon brought in several of his patients one-by-one to surprise them and visit with the Davis family. Some of those patients were like Carly-Faith, having dealt with and overcoming retinoblastoma. Others were battling or recovering from cancer.

Retinoblastoma is a rare childhood cancer that affects the retina, the innermost layer of the eye. About 300 children have been diagnosed with this just this year, and the stats show that it accounts for 3 percent of childhood cancers.

In 2020, Carly-Faith was 9 months old in 2020 when she was diagnosed with retinoblastoma and ended up losing her left eye. She was fully cleared from it and is helping others.

"We're the type of people who like to our pain and turn it into purpose," said Tamela. "And so at nine months, Carly-Faith was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, which is a rare form of cancer of the eye and they had to remove her left eye and it's now a prosthetic. With that, we've developed Buckets of Faith where we like to really pour back into other families who's on that same journey."

Demario talked about his daughter's resiliency, because she also has epilepsy, something that he had detailed following the Saints season-opening win against the Titans in 2023. A routine Friday at the house saw Carly-Faith have her third epilepsy seizure attack after nearly two years without an episode. It lasted 30 minutes and there were serious concerns. Miraculously, she had no developmental issues and was back playing with kids the next day.

Davis said, "One thing about her is that her name is Carly-Faith, and that's really what she instills in us is, that no matter what you're going through, good times, better times, tough times, dark times, just keep your faith and keep moving forward. And she's the shining example to that, to us, and it's amazing to see her at a places like this being a shining example to other people as well."

The connection the family makes is personalized and authentic, mainly because that's who they are and they've walked the journey and hope to be an inspiration for others.

Demario Davis, his wife Tamela and Carly-Faith at Ochsner. / John Hendrix | Saints News Network

"Immediately after she developed retinoblastoma and we walked through our journey, kinda her and her mom kinda came up with how do we turn her pain into purpose? And that's been really good and we as a family now look to share Buckets of Faith, because we're in hospitals, a doctor came up to us and he brought us little buckets and he's like, 'I always tell people to keep their faith buckets full,' and so I like to pass out Buckets of Faith."

Davis continued, "And that's what literally we started to do is go around and find families with similar journeys and figure out ways to bring the buckets of happiness, because we understand how difficult those journeys, the journey can be when there's so much unknown, You really have to lean on faith because it means you have trust in doctors. And you're trusting sometimes resources to come available that may not be there."

The gratitude, tears of joy and relief to be able relate to someone who has walked through this was evident in the families of those children. The children were clearly fighters and had very positive personalities and attitudes, and it was heartwarming to see. You could also tell how invested the Ochsner Care Teams were. You don't always hear about what all is entailed in a journey like this, but the Davis family gets it.

"People may have to travel a long way to get to the nearest hospital and the doctor that's equipped to help them. They may have to stay overnight and they may not have the resources to pay for those services or have hotels or have somewhere to stay. And then you may have other kids, so you have to have people watch your kids and so it's a lot that kind of goes into the journey that people don't know about. And so when you have people who are walking a similar journey that people don't know about, and when you have people who are walking in a similar journey that come in, it's so much that's unspoken that you just understand. And it's like we can relate. And it's amazing that she's able to be here because she's on the other side of that journey and people can see and have an example of, maybe my story will be okay. Because when you're in that moment when you first get the news, you don't know what if, you just imagine the worst. Some people have to walk through the worst of the journey. Everybody doesn't get that success story."

Carly-Faith had special individual messages for each of the children after presenting them with their gifts. She gave them hugs, danced with some and sang. She was a big center of attention, but for all the right reasons. She lit up the room with laughter and joy, and it's not every day you see someone so young make such a big impact, especially given the events of the past.

Demario Davis, his wife Tamela and Carly-Faith at Ochsner. / John Hendrix | Saints News Network

"She's just resilient," Davis said. "One of my favorite moments with her, we were on the way to the doctor, and it was a song from Sing came on. It's 'I'm Still Standing'. And she was signing it to the top of her lungs, 'I'm still standing, whoaaaa (with a yeah, yeah from Carly-Faith)'. Yes, Demario Davis sang for us.

"And it was so amazing because it was like, it kind of made us both emotional because it's like so much has hit her in such a short amount of time. And it was almost like she was singing to the disease. She was singing to the opposition or whatever it was just coming against her. It's like no matter how you bring it, it's not gonna knock me down. I'm still standing. I'm gonna keep going. And that's such a message I think that we as humans need. Because I don't care who you are, how great you are, how might you are, something's gonna knock you off your feet in life. And you're gonna have to find a way to get up and you're gonna have to find a way sing I'm still standing. And that's what she represents, I think, to us and so many people. She is, I tell her all the time, 'You're the star in this family and you're a light to so many people.' And it's amazing. It's amazing. She knows it. She knows it."

Demario Davis, his wife Tamela, Carly-Faith, Dr. Corey Falcon and the Ochsner Team. / John Hendrix | Saints News Network

We can only hope to see more of what light Carly-Faith produces, because it's clear what her and her family are doing makes a huge impact, and we can all learn a lesson from that.