Eric and Laura Smith traversed more than 800 miles from the small town of McRae, Ga., to Houston to seek treatment for their daughter Grace at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The Smiths' emotionally trying trip became even more difficult when their tires were stolen on Monday night, from the parking lot of a motel near Buffalo Speedway and the South Loop where the family was staying (KTRK Ch. 13 was first to report the tire theft).

Eric was spending the night at the hospital with 19-year-old Grace, who is undergoing chemotherapy for sarcoma, an aggressive cancer. Laura woke up and went outside to find all four of the tires missing.

"I couldn't get to the hospital and I was devastated," Laura told KTRK. "I just broke down and started crying, it was overwhelming."

This sort of devastating occurrence is all too common in out-of-town patients who travel to the Texas Medical Center, says Dr. Nathan Fowler, assistant professor of medicine at M.D. Anderson and president and founder of the Halo House Foundation, which provides affordable, clean accommodations for blood cancer patients.

"The vast majority of the patients at the Texas Medical Center are traveling to come here," Fowler tells CultureMap. "With the stress of a new diagnosis, life is already turned upside down. Add that to navigating a big city like Houston and it's absolutely overwhelming."

He applauded the efforts of the hospitals' social workers, case managers and patient advocates, as well as the nonprofits and foundations that provide a strong network patients and families outside of the hospital, but acknowledged that there is always more need to help out-of-town patients.

The Smith family will remain in Houston for three weeks and, though they have been able to take a shuttle back and forth between the medical center in the aftermath of the tire theft, they will have to make repairs and replace tires (at a cost of about $5,000) before returning to Georgia.

Watch the full (and tearful) KTRK report here.