On Monday afternoon, one of my nephews (i.e. younger sister’s 12-year old son) collapsed at home after leaving school due to vomiting. After being revived by the EMT’s, he was taken to the Emergency room and placed in ICU where initial tests were run. They determined he had a 5 cm X 5 cm tumor on his brain stem and planned to airlift him to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Milwaukee (nephew was comatose at this point). Liz and I found this out Monday evening and made preparations to drive to Milwaukee Tuesday evening. As we were getting ready on Tuesday, my sister called with an update. The initial decision from Children’s Memorial was that it wasn’t worth operating on. The chances of him surviving the surgery were negligible. Even if he did make it out of surgery, he would be spending the rest of his life hooked up to machines. So the family were all gathering in Milwaukee to essentially say goodbye. (My older sister was driving up from Michigan Wednesday morning.)
On Wednesday, my sister, my nephew’s father, and my sister’s husband all met with a different surgeon at the hospital who had decided after looking closely at my nephew’s vitals that the original diagnosis was far too pessimistic and he would be willing to operate. As long as my nephew’s vitals remained steady they would schedule the surgery for the following morning (i.e. yesterday).
Better news than the previous day, but trying to remove a tumor on the brain stem is about as easy as putting out a campfire with a squirt gun. The statistics are that only 1 in 5 survive the operation. Fortunately, the Neurological Surgery department at Children’s in Milwaukee is run by one of the top pediatric neurosurgeons in the nation, and his team of surgeons is pretty much as skilled as he is, including the doctor that would operate on my nephew (i.e. the aforementioned one who decided to take a chance on the surgery in the first place). So my nephew stood as good of a chance as any at beating the odds.
My nephew went into surgery at 7:30 Thursday morning. By 4:00 in the afternoon the surgery was finished. They were able to successfully remove about 80% of the tumor, which is about as much as can be removed safely. They don’t know if the tumor is benign or malignant at this point (though, really, how benign is a tumor on ones brainstem when you think about it?) My nephew’s vital signs were steady. He had beaten the odds for now.
He is currently still unconscious as they are slowly reducing his sedation. He has opened his eyes a few times and is apparently responding to his name. Granted, even if he wakes fully, he still has a long road ahead of him. The odds of survival through the first year for this type of situation are about 1 in 3. After the first year, however, the odds rapidly increase. But he’s a strong kid and he’s being treated by a great hospital, so his chances are no doubt higher.
