4-year old leukemia victim suffers relapse
>> Wednesday, August 17, 2011
By Ramon Dacawi
BAGUIO CITY -- Remember Franz Asher Flores, the toddler battling leukemia for two years now?
He’s 4 now and just suffered another relapse. It’s the fourth relapse since the diagnosis – Acute lymphocytic leukemia – was confirmed when he was 2.
His dad, Ferdinand, a retreat coordinator on leave from Assumption Sabbath Place at Crystal Cave, listed the treatment protocols and letdowns from the beginning of the boy’s fight:
Standard chemotherapy (relapse), Standard chemo (relapse), St. Jude Protocol (relapse), Salvage Protocol (relapse).
“Due to relapses, his protocol changed step by step, light to heavy dosages of chemotherapy drugs, and from expensive cost to much more expensive cost,” Ferdinand wrote in a letter-appeal last week.
Franz is now on AML protocol and confined since Aug. 1 at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, also for anemia, bleeding and pneumonia.
He was transfused with 11 blood platelet concentrates and two packs of type A red blood corpuscles, thanks to donors from the San Pablo and Recoletos seminaries, volunteers of the city disaster risk and reduction management council and friends and relatives of the boy.
“After two doses of Doxo and Cytarabine (chemo drug), his immune system went down and they (had) to inject him with GCSF (a drug used for boosting the white blood corpuscles),” Ferdinand wrote.
Ferdinand repeated a vow he and wife Juvy made last March, when told they were back to square one after 19 chemo cycles, and that the protocol had to be raised to St. Jude:
“We had long been drained financially but we’re not giving up on Franz. With your prayers and support, there is a big chance that he will be cured.”
It’s a parent’s classic definition of hope - that of believing notwithstanding evidence to the contrary. It’s a hope shared by Franz’ elder brother Justin Harvey who, at 12, graduated elementary last March at the St. Martin’s School at Crystal Cave.
The figures are staggering, estimated at P68,700 for six cycles of the AML Protocol, aside from the costs of drugs, blood processing and the daily cost of surviving. Juvy had long resigned her work in a construction firm to concentrate on Franz’s healing.
“Due to relapses, his protocol changed step by step, light to heavy dosages of chemotherapy drugs, and from expensive cost to much more expensive cost,” Ferdinand wrote in a letter-appeal last week.
Franz is now on AML protocol and confined since Aug. 1 at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, also for anemia, bleeding and pneumonia.
He was transfused with 11 blood platelet concentrates and two packs of type A red blood corpuscles, thanks to donors from the San Pablo and Recoletos seminaries, volunteers of the city disaster risk and reduction management council and friends and relatives of the boy.
“After two doses of Doxo and Cytarabine (chemo drug), his immune system went down and they (had) to inject him with GCSF (a drug used for boosting the white blood corpuscles),” Ferdinand wrote.
Ferdinand repeated a vow he and wife Juvy made last March, when told they were back to square one after 19 chemo cycles, and that the protocol had to be raised to St. Jude:
“We had long been drained financially but we’re not giving up on Franz. With your prayers and support, there is a big chance that he will be cured.”
It’s a parent’s classic definition of hope - that of believing notwithstanding evidence to the contrary. It’s a hope shared by Franz’ elder brother Justin Harvey who, at 12, graduated elementary last March at the St. Martin’s School at Crystal Cave.
The figures are staggering, estimated at P68,700 for six cycles of the AML Protocol, aside from the costs of drugs, blood processing and the daily cost of surviving. Juvy had long resigned her work in a construction firm to concentrate on Franz’s healing.
Ferdinand’s cellphone number is 09283774560. Juvy’s is 09182477935.
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