Isaac Canales

The parents came out of Grandma’s room by one by one, bags under their eyes, makeup running down their face, and bright red noses. By that time, I could almost predict what happened. As my mom and dad approached us with their heads down, I prepared myself to hear exactly what I never wanted to hear. “The doctors are turning off the life support machine. She isn’t suffering anymore, and she will be looking over every one of you guys. She said she loves you all so much,” Mom told us while my dad didn’t hide his tears back.

I asked my mom “what’s wrong,” she replied with a sorrowful “your Aunt Lisa is in trouble, we must leave now.” The worst part of all of this was my Aunt Lisa’s son was with us, Matthew. He did not know what to think or believe. No one knew the world would slowly start shattering beneath all of us that morning. We drove to her house, we saw ambulances and police cars driving by, that did not help our nerves at all. We finally arrived at her apartment, we never thought all of those emergency vehicles would be going there. My brother and I stay in the car since I was only eight and he was only eleven. My mom and cousin run into the apartment hoping to only find my Aunt had fallen and is unconscious, or she is passed out drunk, just let it be something that is not permanent. What they come to find is that my Aunt is laying on the floor, unconscious, but cold as ice. It was not from someone killing her, or us getting there too late. She had died twenty-four minutes before that phone

That day when I returned home from school, my mom’s boyfriend called me asking to speak to my grandmother. Typically, Gus would call my grandmother himself if he wanted to speak with her, which was rare. I found out about my mom going to the hospital from my grandmother after that phone call. The doctor told my family that a stroke afflicted her in the middle of the day. My mom confused the date with her birthday, had trouble getting words out and remembering our family member’s names. The nurse had to take her for walks periodically and exercise her legs and arms because they were weak. Seeing my mother in this condition made me appreciate my mother and everything she does for me tremendously. However, I was terrified for my mother’s health.

The importance behind this health issue is that major advances in medicine haven’t significantly improved survivor rates nor have medical advances reduced the number of cancer cases per year in children under 18 years of age (Curtin, Minino, Anderson, 2016).“Congressman McCaul is a father of five and knows that every parent’s worst nightmare is their children receiving a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. Growing up, his childhood best friend lost his battle to cancer. It wasn’t fair then and it isn’t fair now. Congressman McCaul founded the Childhood Cancer

She had ______ cancer. My uncle had stepped out for ten minutes to purchase some medicine from the pharmacist. Nancy thought she had a cold. As soon as he left, the doctor’s say, she fainted, and died. It was sudden. The news hit everyone hard. Her funeral was somber, and everyone wore black. Not one person uttered a word. Even so, I knew what everyone was thinking. How could someone who was so generous die at such an early age? I was thinking it too. How is life so unfair? If the one person that is truly constantly happy and giving just dies, what is that supposed to mean? Should we no longer be happy? Should we no longer give? I thought about Nancy’s life. How it meant nothing. She gave and gave, and still she was taken away. A single tear escaped from my eye. It froze, in the center of my cheek. I didn't wipe it

Taylor Has been through a lot her grandfather died and so did her uncle, he died at the age of 29. She never had the chance to say how much she loved them. She always thought “What if I had said something, anything, What if I had the chance to change his outcome but I didn’t, I did nothing I just let it happen.” Now she is afraid of losing her grandmother that would be the end of the 4th of July parties, the christmas get-togethers, the Easter parties, and swimming in her lake when it's burning hot in the summer. But what breaks her heart the most is that her father has cancer. Taylor’s father mean the world to her, He means everything.

Three months ago, Tristan lost her grandfather to a moderate case of pneumonia. Prior to this illness, he had cancer in one lung and had it remove. Due to having one lung, the doctor informed that he has a low chance of surviving. While her grandfather was in the hospital, Tristan made the time to visit him as much as she could. Sometimes, she would bring her school work with her and studied while her grandfather slept.

Although it helped a little, about halfway through her treatment she collapsed from not being able to breath. They immediately rushed her to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. The family was devastated to hear the news, which put their son alex into a state of depression, while his dad and brother jack were just trying to be there for the mother. They tried every treatment in the book but her life expectancy was short. The family was there for her, until the dad woke up one day to his wife who passed away in her sleep about a month after alex’s fifteenth birthday.

This past summer, I, along with my mother and father, travelled to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. My mom had been invited to participate in the St. Jude For Life Study because when she was around six to eight years old, she had a form of leukemia called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This particular study is to help all present and future St. Jude patients and help to research for a cure. While there, I saw first-hand how cancer can affect a family. You can just see all of the stress, the worry, the exhaustion, the tiredness, the fear, and the tears on the families’ and the patients’ faces.

I read Steve Almasy and Carma Hassan “South Carolina school shooting: 6-year-old victim dies” It was written on October 1st and I found it on CNN. In a South Carolina Elementary School shooting a 6-year-old boy wounded has died, his mother said Saturday. The boy's name is Jacob Hall he suffered massive blood loss due to a hit in the femoral artery. The blood loss led to a major brain injury. Jacobs mother Renae announced his death in a Facebook post. The 14-year-old boy suspected of the shooting at Townville Elementary School was charged Friday with three counts of attempted murder. The shooting suspect, a 14 year old boy, on friday was charged with three counts of attempted murder. The boy also is connected with the murder of his father which

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the most common childhood cancer, but also, one of the most curable. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a blood cancer that affects the white blood cells which causes them to build up in the liver, spleen and lymph nodes. (St. Jude's research hospital) Another case, is about a toddler, named Mark, who wasn’t even two years old, at the time and had developed a slight limp. At first, the doctor’s were not concerned and had told his mother, Rita, that he would get better over time. But, she was not convinced, she was later referred to a specialist, who performed a CT scan. Which, later showed a tumor in Mark’s head. “The family received a referral and arrived at St. Jude in January 2010. At St. Jude, further testing was done and a discovery was made: Mark’s tumor was actually a very rare type of bone cancer, in the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors- not brain cancer as originally believed” (StJude.org) If it wasn’t for St. Jude or the mother then Mark may not have lived and be over five years cancer free. “It’s like a miracle. Everything is given to the family here for free without any expectation,” Rita said…. “I wish every nation in the world would have a St.Jude,” said Rita. “That way, everyone would have a chance” “ (StJude.org). This just shows how much it means to the families and the children. The place that

A 6-year-old girl was diagnosed with stage IV anaplastic Wilms’ tumor and had to undergo experimental chemotherapy, with less than a 5 percent chance of curing the deadly disease. Sadly, the personal account of this young child is highlighted in “Tell the Children” in the Journal of Clinical Oncology—written by Joanne Hilden, Jan Watterson, and Jody Chrastek, all from a hospital’s department of Hematology/Oncology. Not only does this young girl have to fight a relentless cancer, but she has to also go through this battle without understanding what she is dealing with. Hilden, Watterson, and Chrastek states that the parents were offered help in explaining to their daughter and her sister what may possibly happen: hospice (3193). Unfortunately, the parents’ response was, “We do not want the children told about this. Children should not have to deal with death. They should be free from that for as long as possible. We will answer what they ask, but we will not tell them what is happening or that our daughter is dying, and we do not want you to tell them, either” (3193). As a result of non-existent communication between the parent and the child, the young patient experienced a great deal of suffering and confusion. The parents declared that their child was comfortable; although, as time went on the child actually admitted to staff that she was, indeed, in pain (3193).

As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a

One of the many of the world's problems is sickness, but some diseases have no cure which can result in death. Cancer is a code we just can’t seem to crack and it has taken hundreds of thousands of lives. Everyone knows of someone who has died of or had cancer in their life. It’s a hard sickness to beat but many strong people do beat it, some being children. I have personally seen my family members go through this and of course, some didn’t make it out alive. If you have seen anyone who has cancer, you’ll see how it can take over your body, how that person doesn’t even look like themselves anymore.

Well, not quite. She doesn’t say cancer right away. Mom and Dad don’t know all the details yet, and Mom doesn’t reveal the cancer part right away. But she tells you that Henri has to have his kidney removed. And that’s scary. It’s scary to me and I’m seven years older than you are. Your little brother has cancer. You’ll cry, right there in the car, with Henri’s friend Ava in the back seat. Mom will cry a little too. Mom will cry a lot in the next year, she’s just as strong as Henri is. You get home and Henri is in the front lawn. He got to go to Burger King for lunch, in between his tests, and he got a green dinosaur toy. He’s just sitting there, playing. Happy. Looking back on that, I know now how miraculous that is. How incredible bravery is amplified by youthful innocence. You won’t understand that, and that’s ok. There are a lot of