Life-Threatening Illness Strikes Again
Mar 15th, 2008 by Kathy
D’Ann Lawrence White, Tribune photo
Having experiencing the death of two children, Renee Jones said she’s determined to do whatever she possibly can to make sure 4-year-old Brian survives. “I’ve got a lot of faith,” she said.
Source: http://brandonnews2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/…
By D’ANN LAWRENCE WHITE, The Tampa Tribune
BRANDON - From the moment he was born, 4-year-old Brian Jones was determined to tackle everything life had to offer, said his aunt, Sonya McLaughlin.
“He started reading when he was just 18 months old and began adding and subtracting numbers shortly after,” she said. “Now, I’ll give him ‘The Cat in the Hat’ to read, and I’ll walk back in the room and find him reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’ instead. He’s just very focused, very determined, and I think that’s what will get him through this.”
McLaughlin is referring to Brian’s fight for life. The boy and his doctors are waging a battle against a deadly glioma tumor lodged at the base of Brian’s brain stem. The disease affects the central nervous system.
For his mother, Renee Jones, it’s a fight to save her son and her faith. Brian is her second child diagnosed with cancer. In 1996, her 3-year-old daughter Alysha died from a brain tumor, also found on the brain stem.
“Alysha was bright, smart, gorgeous and quite demanding,” recalled Jones’ best friend, Lisa Burke. “We all fell in love with her.”
One day, Jones got a call from Alysha’s day-care center. The toddler was dizzy and off balance. Jones immediately took her to Brandon Regional Hospital, where an MRI revealed the little girl had a brain mass.
She was flown to Shands-Jacksonville Hospital. Six hours of exploratory surgery confirmed the toddler had a rare tumor called a rhabdoid. Despite radiation and chemotherapy, Alysha died Feb. 18, 1996, six weeks after she was diagnosed.
“Renee was devastated,” Burke said. “All she ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. But she’s such an incredibly strong person. She’s got an amazing sense of humor and so much faith in God. I don’t know how, but she survived it.”
Years later, after a dramatic series of other family tragedies, Jones met, fell in love with and married Myron Jones.
“People always ask me how I coped,” Renee Jones said. “I really don’t know the answer. I guess I just had other people who depended on me, and I just had to keep going.”
When Brian was born Dec. 25, 2003, she said she knew she had been blessed.
“Brian was truly a gift from God,” she said.
Myron Jones was equally thrilled.
“He’s a daddy’s boy all the way,” he said. “We do everything together - walk around the neighborhood, go to Chuck E. Cheese, visit the tree park. Well, we did everything together before he got sick. Now, we don’t take Brian out very much because we don’t want him to catch any germs.”
Until February, Brian had been an active, healthy and precocious child. The Joneses did not have a reason to worry that Brian might become ill.
So the phone call Renee Jones received Feb. 8 from Progress Village Academy, where Brian attends preschool, seemed surreal.
Brian was having a hard time walking and had begun drooling.
Recalling similar symptoms with Alysha, Renee promptly took Brian to Brandon Regional’s emergency room and insisted that he have an MRI. The test showed a large tumor on his brain stem. He was transferred to St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Tampa, where doctors began a protocol of daily radiation there and chemotherapy at home.
Once the series of treatments ends April 1, doctors will measure the tumor to determine whether the radiation and chemo have shrunk the tumor. Doctors give Brian a 30 percent chance of surviving.
“I was in a state of shock,” said Myron Jones’ mother, Shirley Anderson. “He’s my youngest grandchild, and he means the world to me. It’s not something you expect to hear. And Renee’s already been through so much. My heart went out to her. If there was ever anyone in need of community support and prayers, it’s this family. It is truly heartbreaking.”
Two different kinds of brain tumors occurring in one family is extremely rare, said Cameron Tebbi, head of pediatric oncology at St. Joseph’s. Tebbi, who has written two books on pediatric cancer, said he has not seen another case of two siblings with brain tumors in his 39 years in practice.
“I was absolutely stunned,” he said. “My heart bleeds for this family - two major diseases that are extremely rare. They have my sympathy.”
“I guess I’m looking for a miracle,” McLaughlin said. “This is such an anomaly. We feel we need to try every avenue available. If there is a trial out there, we need to find it and pursue it. I want to make sure Brian has every chance possible. We’re also looking for a geneticist. We want to know if it’s possible for brain tumors to run in the family. This is too painful to relive again and again.”
McLaughlin also is seeking community resources that might be available to help her sister through this difficult time.
“She and Myron are both sleep-deprived from taking care of Brian,” McLaughlin said. “Myron’s still working full-time, and I’d love for him to be able to take some time off so he can spend more time with his family during this crisis. When there’s a sick child, it’s very important to focus on that sick child, and Brian needs his dad with him.”
Renee Jones takes Brian to St. Joseph’s every weekday for radiation treatments. Because he is so young, he is placed under anesthesia.
At home, Renee and Myron Jones take turns administering their son’s chemotherapy treatments. Brian can walk and play after radiation, and that’s a good sign, Renee Jones said. Alysha couldn’t walk.
“We just try to stay as positive as we can,” Myron Jones said. “There’s nothing else we can do.”
“We’re just very hopeful and prayerful,” his wife said. “We try focusing on the good things.”
“If something happens to this child, I don’t know what will happen to my sister,” McLaughlin said through a veil of tears. “My sister’s very strong, but how much pain can one person take?”
Friends of the family have set up a fund to help finance the cost of Brian’s medical treatments. Donations can be made to Bank of America in Brian A. Jones’ name. The or .
Reporter D’Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or .
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