Boy's Brain Tumor Not Cancer: 'A Christmas Miracle,' Family Says

NORTH HAVEN, CT — “It’s a Christmas miracle,” Nicole Feeley told Patch Tuesday after she was told by the team of oncologists — who have been treating her son Ryder, 6, after a section of a massive tumor was removed from around his brain — that the tumors inside the child’s body “are not cancerous.”

While the first-grader will not require radiation, in two weeks, she’ll meet with his surgeon and he will begin chemotherapy treatments for a year. Feeley explained that the once weekly treatments consist of two medications to “get rid of the active cells and may shrink the tumors which will remain and be dormant.”

“The tumors are a new class and fairly rare glioneuromal tumor,” she said in a text message to Patch. “He has some spread to his spinal fluid but no where else. Once treatment begins there is only risk of nausea, constipation, tight ankles, and low bone marrow that may require transfusions. That is it. He will have eight weeks of chemotherapy and then two weeks off followed by an MRI to check the progress of the treatment. After that the remainder of the year will be four weeks on and three weeks off of chemotherapy.”

That’s a lot for a kid to have to deal with, but, the tumors are not cancerous and that’s the blessing, she said.

“This really is the Christmas miracle,” the family had been praying for, she said.

In the original story, Patch shared the news.

Little Ryder had not been himself for months. The former Overbrook Learning Center student has of late often been angry and acting out, But he also began having terrible headaches. Recently diagnosed with ADHD, and last year with hearing loss, his doctors thought the headaches and behavior changes were related to those diagnoses. But his mom, a lifelong East Havener until a move to North Haven, knew something else was wrong. His behavior for one thing was new. She said he was never an angry or aggressive boy.

After her advocating and “calling every doctor in the book,” Ryder had an MRI and it was now clear what was wrong with the boy: he had a massive tumor covering part of his brain. And smaller ones nearby as well as tumors or tumor fragments in spinal fluid.

A day later, he was in surgery at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital to remove the tumor that had caused hearing loss and myriad other issues including dramatic behavioral changes and crushing headaches.

He’s still a sick little boy, but he does not have cancer, his mom said.

And for that miracle, his family is counting all its blessings this Christmas.

A family friend launched a GoFundMe for the family.

GoFundMe is a Patch partner.