Main Line Boy Fights Cancer While Keeping Up With Classes

BY JUSTIN HEINZE:

Twelve-year-old David Gibson had dreams of being a member of the bomb squad. Then cancer struck.

Nearly eight months later, his dreams remain.

The young hero from Lower Merion has successfully fought through several stages of cancer and cancer treatment while maintaining a load of school work, according to Alex’s Lemonade Stand:

David was diagnosed with undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma of the liver (UESL) at the end of February 2015. It came as a bit of a shock to us, because we had no idea. We had figured that when the school nurse called on that Tuesday complaining of chest pain and a fever, that he had pneumonia (again), which would mean an ER visit, some antibiotics and a few days of him feeling crummy.

We were floored when the ER doctor at Lankenau Hospital told us that the ultrasound revealed a 17 cm mass on the right lobe of his liver. He was transferred to CHOP where they were able to do an MRI of his liver, which revealed that it was huge, approximately five pounds of tumorous mass. He was admitted from Tuesday until Saturday night, where they did a biopsy on it and sent him home. He returned a day later, admitted back to CHOP for pain management. There he remained for the better part of a week, while we learned from his oncologist that he was diagnosed with UESL. They set about installing a central port, and beginning an aggressive treatment to shrink the size of the tumor to a surgically manageable size. When he finally went home, it was for a day, only to be readmitted to CHOP with a fever. When his ANC levels came back to a reasonable level, and he was no longer neutropenic, he went home again. This time, however, he was able to stay out of the hospital, except for his weekly oncology clinic visits. We went back the next week, only for the next round to have to start all over again. This time, he was out in a few days, and he went home (and surprisingly, back to school).

That was in June. David, a student at Penn Wynne Elementary School, has now completed several stages of treatment is on his way to recovery.

Image courtesy Alex’s Lemonade Stand.