Frank Dinucci Analysis

As a Childlife volunteer at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA I felt the warmth and fulfillment of helping others during times of ill-health. Every week I would join a team of volunteers to spend time with the children and give their parents someone to talk to. Jacob, a soft-spoken 6-year-old, stays particularly close to my heart. Living in the hospital for numerous weeks had seemed to extinguish his childish exuberance. Whenever I tried to engage him he would simply turn away with a glum look upon his face. Making sure not to reveal my inner thoughts of pity, I

I suppose it should have been obvious to me before I even started at NCCF that not every case of childhood leukemia or lymphoma turns into a star on the wall in the hallway celebrating a successful remission. But nothing prepares you to hear a quiet “unfortunately” precede the name of a child who, weeks before, had fearlessly conquered double-digit multiplication.

Children can be an unseen ghost as they walk silently in the footsteps of their dying parent. Having a serious illness in the family creates its own kind of culture; the culture of the “sick family”, where an illness takes the lead as the most important player in the family. Children who are used to being the first consideration in most homes suddenly take a far second to dealing with the illness. They are often left out of important discussions and shielded from seeing the sick or dying parent and many of their basic needs are left poorly met. In the emotional chaos of critical illness children are often believed to be unaware of what is actually happening, and are forced to either find emotional support from someone outside the family or hurt alone. Julie Orringer in her short story titled

who died of cancer between 1990-1997 experienced substantial suffering at EOL and parental communication was deficient. Wolfe suggests that there is a need for extensive improvement in EOLC for children with cancer (2000).

In researching this subject I was able to interview a parent, Johari Evans, of a six year old boy, Rodney Burton III, who is suffering from Hodgkin 's Lymphoma. Ms. Evans shared with me some of the coping tools she used in hope that others can benefit when faced with a similar situation. We talked about how having cancer affects a child and the family in their everyday lives. Ms. Evans expressed how important it is to be able to access informational sites, self-help manuals and hospital based workshops to learn coping skills and positive ways of dealing with such sadness. She also helped me understand emotional mindset of a parent and how she is able to help both of her children cope with the situation.

This is Hugh. Hugh is a 5yr old boy full of curiosity and energy. He loves race cars, rocket ships and building Lego. And like most 5-year-old children he sees his mommy and daddy as his super heroes. But Hugh hasn’t been able to live the typical life of a 5-year-old. A year ago his parents brought him in to SickKids after he had numerous migraines which then caused vomiting. Hugh was diagnosed with a brain tumour and it was discovered as cancerous.

Do you know the term cancer? Surely we’ve all heard the word and it dampens the air when you speak of it. We all know cancer can end lives, but we also know that it can be beat just like six year old Violet did. Violet was a normal girl at the age of six until her world was turned upside down when an ultrasound found a fist sized tumor near her kidney. She immediately underwent chemo and surgery. The life of the family changed significantly, but it’s a change they are willing to make in order to keep their precious little girl. During this time Violet and her family had to seek help from a pediatric oncologist. Pediatric oncologists save lives, here is how you can become the hero in children’s eyes.

In a very different vein, Aleksandar Hemon's essay about his infant daughter's terminal illness is a difficult and unnerving reading experience. Most stories about illness package grief up in a retrospective way, but reading Hemon's account, you feel like you're muddling along with him. His inability to understand what's happening and subsequent psychological coping mechanisms are raw and painful but also have a surreal logic to them; left me feeling weirdly inspired about the resiliency of human psychology. A Child’s Isolating

Your different perspectives of the doctor and the patient help me effectively understand the difficulty and sorrow from both sides. This understanding leads to increased compassion which in turn makes me a better human being. I look at these people with a new, refined light. I feel sad for their condition and hopeful that one day there might be a cure which will save millions of innocent lives. Your recall your disease with painful uncertainty. It reminds me that even in this age of human advancement, there are things that humanity has yet to discover and

When children get diagnosed with a particular disorder, it is important for the parents to accept that their child does have a problem. Some parents, do everything that’s right; regular therapies, medications but in their hearts, they align to the idea that their kid is completely normal. The child spends 80 percent of the time at home and 20 percent with the therapist, so if the parent hasn’t fully accepted that their child is special, their attitudes and parenting style towards the child won’t be ideal. There is also a completely deranged extreme set of people, who believe they can sort

Lori designed, implemented, and secured sustainable funding for innovative programs that provide emotional, financial and practical support to families of children with cancer. Lori Butterworth opened this talk by mentioning that she volunteered at a children hospital for a 1000 hours. She realizes she couldn’t do it, for numerous reasons. She got the courage when her friends son had got admitted to the hospital with cancer. She threw a party for her friend, where she raised enough money for her to quit for job, and be with her son for the entire year. She learned you can handle anything as long as you don’t have to experience it alone. The doctors gave Juab a 5% chance of living, and he just graduated from high school! She has started 2 more non-profit organizations, since that point. The Boomerang Foundation and is passing on her own positive, life-affirming experiences while providing support and guidance to young people about living life on purpose. She broke down how inspiring it would be if the government sent out Thank You letter to everyone, while explaining how they spent your money. Throughout everything she encountered, she realized that Jacob mother was right when she stated “We can handle anything, if we don’t have to handle it

When a diagnosis of a chronic debilitating disease is given to a parent it is important to educate parents on the importance of opening a line of communication with their children. Parents want to protect their children from anything that may hurt them but children are extremely observant and notice changes in members of their family whether they are acknowledged or

The cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo did a fabulous job in capturing the essence of the film. The camerawork in 8½ is memorable because there is a wide array of style. From the hotel to the beach, the camera work shows how Mastroianni sees the world in the film. It is constantly shifting the perspective and allowing us to see how Guido reacts in his world. The wide pans help to set the stage and the tone for that scene. This helps the spectators understand what is going on in the film and where they are at. The way each scene is shot guides the viewers into Guido’s memories, fantasy and reality. Capturing certain sequences, Venanzo leads us into Guido’s past by showing us triggers that elicit the memory. For example the memory of Saraghina,

It is important that this time is one of fully accepting the child, sick or not, and learning what to expect and how to react to difficult attitudes and behavior. Caring for the child’s needs Parents may show value to the child in

It is very hard for a child to learn when they suffer from an ailment which they cannot control. Children can be labeled, secluded, and criticized when they can not grasp the same simple skills and understandings that other children can. When such actions occur, children withdraw themselves from society and fight out of a corner as anyone would when put in the same situation.