While raising their four older children, Michell and Derek Heinzman of Montara are coping with hospital trips and treatments for the baby, Ethan, just over 1 year old and stricken with a rare and serious form of cancer.
Almost as grim as the stress and sense of helplessness were the mounting medical bills and cost of living when Michell had to leave her job and Derek cut back on his, to take care of the baby. Then a friend, Virginia Lloyd, opened a benefit fund at the Linda Mar, Pacifica, First National Bank, to which donations can be made.
 Michell Heinzman cuddles baby Ethan while husband Derek Heinzman looks on in the hospital the day Ethan had surgery. |
Ethan, born May 22, 2006, wasn't very old when he developed flu-like symptoms. He couldn't keep anything down but breast milk and his family thought he may have contracted a stomach flu.
Eventual blood and stool tests proved inconclusive, and then, on April 9, a scan revealed a golf-ball-sized growth in the back of Ethan's head, where his skull was softest. The diagnosis was a rare and aggressive brain tumor.
He was also accumulating fluid in his brain, which accounted for his bouts of nighttime pain. "He would wake up in the night screaming," said his mother.
The tyke was rushed to University of California, San Francisco, medical facilities, where on April 12 surgeons removed as much of the tumor as they could.
Rounds of in-hospital treatment, including chemotherapy, followed. Over the past week, Ethan was allowed to come home, where his mother continued treatment with oral chemotherapy.
Intravenous treatment will follow that, and Ethan will be hospitalized for a couple of weeks to guard against infection as the treatment will have lowered his infection-resistant white blood cell count.
While the saga was unfolding, Michell Heinzman left her job with Coastside Children's Programs at that organization's child care center at Farallone View. Her husband reduced his work hours. Friends and fellow congregants from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which the Heinzmans attend, offered food and support.
Medical insurance helps, but still, prescription medications are "outrageous," Michell Heinzman said, and daily costs and gas bills for hospital trips were adding up. "I'm not quite sure if all the medications will be covered or not," she said.
Then friend and fellow church member Lloyd opened the Ethan Heinzman Benefit Fund at the bank. The family hopes it will help.
"Without church and community support, I don't know how we would have made it through so far," Michell Heinzman said.
She said the greatest challenge may still lie ahead.
"The outlook isn't good," with statistics pointing to a 10 percent survival rate, admitted Michell Heinzman. "But we keep thinking, someone has to be that 10 percent. We keep hoping and praying."
Those wishing to donate may do so to the Ethan Heinzman Benefit Fund at the First National in Pacifica or in Half Moon Bay at 756 Main St. It can be reached at 726-6373.
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