Hollister family faces uphill battle to cure their baby from an
aggressive cancer
The name of the cancer sounds like a global weapon of mass
destruction, one that can blast a person’s nerves away.
Hollister family faces uphill battle to cure their baby from an aggressive cancer
The name of the cancer sounds like a global weapon of mass destruction, one that can blast a person’s nerves away.
In a way, it does. Neuroblastoma is a cancer that forms in the nerve tissue of the adrenal gland, neck, chest or spinal cord, and what makes it particularly nasty is that it usually attacks babies or small children aged 5 or younger. In early February, specialists at Stanford Children’s Hospital told Sharon and Jason Fisch of Hollister that their 17-month-old son, Gabriel, was stricken with the disease. So far, CAT-scans have detected seven tumors in the tyke – three located in his head.
“I remember the exact spot in Stanford where I stood,” said Sharon, her eyes welling up as she relived the moment oncologists delivered the news to her and her husband. “I could only tell a few of my friends, and my parents in Texas, because I couldn’t even repeat the sentence. It was horrifying.”
“It was dreamlike,” said father Jason. “It was a big denial for me at first. It’s hard to describe.”
It’s hard for the Fischs to say which was worse: not knowing what was wrong or learning the truth. The two weeks preceding the long awaited but proper diagnosis were “indescribably frustrating,” as Sharon put it, due to a wild ride of medical missteps and even the prerequisite cat-and-mouse game with a Child Protective Services worker who initially suspected that Gabriel had Shaken Baby Syndrome. Lumps on the neck and head, two black eyes – the baby did have symptoms similar to those exhibited by SBS.
But the lumps were tumors; the black eyes caused by pressure from more tumors in the jaw.
According to statistics compiled by the American Cancer Society, there are 650 new cases of neuroblastoma diagnosed a year. It is the most common form of cancer in infants, the third most common in children. The symptoms, however, are confounding, as they were for the Fischs and their longtime local pediatrician who initially thought Gabriel had a severe sinus infection.
A good life, interrupted
There’s a colored flyer going around town, put together by concerned friends of the family, which gives a brief history of the Fischs’ ordeal. The two parents are self-employed: Sharon is a hairstylist and Jason is a landscape contractor. Aside from Gabriel, there is also 7-year old Jadien. The family lives in a newer two-storied house in the suburbs of southeast Hollister. They enjoyed spending time at Pismo Beach at the sand dunes of a state park where they ride all-terrain vehicles and camp near the shore.
The good life came crashing down Jan. 26, after the parents took Gabriel to their doctor when the baby developed two black eyes. Gabriel underwent a CAT-scan at Good Samaritan in Los Gatos, but nothing showed up. They were told it was a sinus infection, and though Sharon had her doubts, they took Gabriel home.
Days later the symptoms worsened and this time the Fischs went to a local ophthalmologist. The doctor knew it was something more serious and urged the parents to get Gabriel to the Hazel Hawkins emergency room. As circumstances would have it, the family arrived during a shift change and it took an hour before they saw a physician.
But once they did, a technician insisted Gabriel have another scan. This time the scan revealed three masses on the baby’s face. The doctor suggested it could be tumors and recommended Gabriel be taken to Stanford Children’s Hospital.
And somewhere in between the misdiagnoses and the mad shuffle and the worrying, Child Protective Services stuck its nose in the ordeal.
“They said, ‘We’ve got a hold on Gabriel, and if it comes back positive for Shaken Baby Syndrome, we will contact your daycare provider,'” Sharon recounted. “Like, we couldn’t take him home until we were cleared.”
Once at Stanford Children’s Hospital, physicians took more tests, more scans, and four more tumors were revealed. One was on the hipbone, others were in the neck and spine. After another long 24 hours and further tests, the oncologists told the Fischs it was neuroblastoma.
At this point, when dad Jason hurriedly explains the intricate details of the disease, he sounds like an oncologist himself. After he was told what it was by the Stanford doctors, he stayed up all night at his computer downloading information about the cancer.
“It was a nightmare,” Jason recalls. “That night I printed up so much stuff.”
He goes on to explain Gabriel’s condition.
“He has a favorable histology with amplified myca,” Jason said.
“He has cancer,” says Jadien of his baby brother, as reporters were invited into the Fisch home.
As the parents talked with the journalists, Jadien and Gabriel played with a bubble machine in the living room. Unless one was told, it wasn’t immediately obvious that anything was wrong with Gabriel. Like any normal baby entering the “terrible twos,” he was preoccupied with toys and punctuated his playtime with the occasional shriek of frustration when a much bigger older brother gets the better of a situation.
Undeveloped nerve cells
Scientists have not completely pinned down the cause of neuroblastoma. It is generally not inherited. What they do know is that nerve cells and cells of the medulla (the center) of the adrenal gland develop from cells produced by the fetus, and are called neuroblasts. Researchers believe neuroblastoma – the cancerous cells – form when normal fetal neuroblasts fail to become mature nerve cells or adrenal medulla cells. Instead, they continue to grow and divide.
Small clusters of undeveloped neuroblasts are common in infants less than three months old, and usually these eventually mature into nerve cells or disappear. But if they continue to grow they can spread quickly to other parts of the body.
The average age of diagnoses for neuroblastoma is 17 months – Gabriel’s age. By the time it is discovered, more often than not, it usually has metastasized, or spread most often to the lymph nodes, bones, bone marrow, liver and skin.
There are four stages of the cancer, one through four, with each more severe than the other and each requiring more drastic measures. Gabriel is in stage four because the tumors are in unremovable locations. The plan is to shrink the tumors as much as possible through chemotherapy – harsh injections of anti-cancer chemicals – and radiation, then remove what remains surgically.
It’s hard to imagine a baby undergoing chemo and radiation.
Stanford oncologists initially gave Gabriel a 30 percent chance of survival, but those odds are improving. The baby started chemotherapy Feb. 10, and so far it’s working. He’s due for six rounds of chemo before the surgeons go in, and Gabriel is already on round four.
Then, after chemo round six, Gabriel will get a dose of radiation, undergo a bone marrow transplant, then blood dialysis to separate blood cells. They’ve collected stem cells from Gabriel’s stomach, as well. If all goes well, he will be hospitalized for a month and be on a morphine drip for 10 days.
A new routine
Life for the Fischs has changed. After spending 45 days in a Palo Alto hotel, the family decided to come home but trips to Stanford are a near daily routine.
Every day, Jason must administer injections of medicine into Gabriel’s leg, medicine that costs $660 a shot.
“The minute I swab him with the alcohol he screams bloody murder,” said Jason. “So I do it really fast and the minute I’m done he stops. He’s such a trooper.”
Neither parent has time to work full-time at this point, and the bills are mounting. If it weren’t for their Blue Cross medical coverage, the Fischs would be bankrupt.
“Thank God,” said Jason of the coverage. “Without it, we couldn’t do it. I can’t imagine it. It would be at least $700,000, just at this point, I guarantee you.”
“I see the cars coming and going all the time,” said friend and neighbor Tina Seanez, referring to family’s constant trips to Stanford.
Seanez is coordinating some fund raising to help the family financially.
Parents of the Parent-Teacher Organization at Cerra Vista Elementary School, Jadien’s school, have offered their help and started a coin drive that’s already reaped $2,600. Seanez is hoping to set up a fund-raising event, perhaps at a local winery, for the Fischs. Both Sharon and Jason say the school parents, neighbors and friends have given invaluable support.
But money-wise, they need bigger help. People wanting to help defray the costs of the Fischs’ ordeal can donate money into a Washington Mutual account, number 350-614742-5, and the account name is “Gabriel Fisch.”
“We have a really long road ahead of us,” Sharon said.
