Ethan Childs is a 9 year old boy who resides in Oak Park and was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in September 2006 when he went to his doctor for his annual physical. The next day he was admitted to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and within the week, Ethan began a 3 year treatment program. His first form of treatment included weekly chemotherapy sessions; the next stage includes daily radiation treatments.
Ethan lives in Oak Park with his parents and 2 older brothers. Ethan, a 3rd grader, attended Red Oak Elementary School until he fell ill. For the 2006/2007 school year, Ethan will be home schooled with the help of resources provided by the Oak Park Unified School District.
Ethan’s friends, neighbors and the families at Red Oak have rallied together to do what they can for him; including spearheading the efforts to help raise funds for Ethan’s family. As a community of people who care and are concerned about Ethan’s care, we feel so lucky to have found the Talbert Family Foundation.
In an e-mail, Ethan’s mom, writes, “…fortunately, the ALL form of leukemia is a highly curable form; however, Ethan is considered a high risk case for three reasons; he has the T-cell type of the cancer (these kind of cells tend to hide out in areas of the body and can be more prone to relapse), also at the time of the onset of his disease he had an extremely high white blood cell count, at one point it was over 500,000, the normal range is 5-10,000. The last high risk factor is that he is what's termed a "slow early responder", which means his bone marrow continued to produce leukemia cells even after the first dose of chemo. With all that said, we are very confident in the treatment he's receiving at Children's; they are taking a very aggressive approach to be sure he doesn't have a relapse.”
This situation is still so new to the Childs family and as expected, they are struggling with the emotional, physical, and financial issues that accompany a child with a life-threatening illness.
Thank you so much for your support |
