My son Caleb Blanchard was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) on August 22, 2022 at the age of 14 in Reno, Nv. Just three weeks before his 15th birthday. He endured 5 rounds of chemotherapy and was in remission for three months then he relapsed. He had to go through more chemotherapy to put him back in remission so he would be able to go through the process of having a bone marrow transplant. During this time he was home and was able to get his drivers permit and turned 16 at home. He got his drivers license as well. We were lucky that his three younger siblings were matches. The oldest one volunteered his bone marrow to help save his older brother’s life. We did not ask him to and his brother didn’t want to ask them to as well. After about 3 1/2 months of either being in the hospital at Stanford Medical Center in Stanford, Ca. and or quarantine of a hotel room he was finally in remission again. During this time he had graduated High School at the age of 16 and then turned 17 shortly after. That only lasted for about a month and a half or so and he relapsed again. He had about three trials to try to get him back into remission again which meant more chemotherapy. After that didn’t work there was one more trail that was brought up but that one was in New York City. Which he agreed to try as we went there hoping that the third time was the charm. It started with him going to New York City and doing test and paperwork. Then they took some of his T-cells out of his blood. They had to modify them and it took about a month to a month and a half before they were ready to be reinstalled back into his system. During that time he was able to go home until they were ready. Again when he got back to New York City he had to have more chemotherapy and this time he needed radiation. When he was back in remission they were able to reinstall his modified T-cells which are now called CARR T-cells. He was in the hospital on the pediatric floor with no issues. All of a sudden he had a blood infection. They moved him to the PICU ( pediatric ICU). He was there long enough to get the infection under control. He was sent back to his normal floor. About a week went by and then he was having a hard time keeping his breath and they put him back into the PICU. They started with a nasal cannula then a high flow nasal cannula and eventually a mask. During this time he was retaining fluids in his body as well. They were giving him diuretic’s to help remove the excess fluid that his body was retaining. One night he got up to use the restroom and when Caleb removed the mask he collapsed. I got to him just in time before he hit his head on the floor. He suffered about a minute to three minutes of hypoxia which is the lack of oxygen to his brain. They were able to get oxygen to him and keep him from passing. They put him on a C-PAP machine full time after that. It was at this time they found another blood infection. From there he started to go downhill. He went from the C-PAP to a BI-PAP and then to a medically induced coma and intubation. It was at this time that he ended up in the adult ICU as well. It was at this time that the doctors were saying that he was critically ill. They did multiple x-rays, CT scans and even a bronchoscopy. It was at this point that they found old blood in his lungs and cleaned them out as much as he could take without hurting him. It seamed to work and then another setback. He had ended up with a fungal pneumonia and another blood infection and even a small hemorrhage in his brain. He seemed to recover from those as well. Then there was another setback. After this he recovered again and they started SBT’s ( Supported Breathing Trials) for a couple of days. He was doing fine and even exceeded their expectations. So the doctors decided to extubate him. He went about 8-10 hours on his own then they had to re-intubate him. Two days later he was scheduled for a tracheotomy which went without a problem on Friday the 25th of July. He was showing signs of recovery and then everything turned super fast. Saturday he was showing signs of not being able to recover. His siblings and I booked flights to go and be with him as his mom was already there with him. His mom, grandma and I all took turns of being with him during this long journey as well. We didn’t want him to be alone or feel like he was alone through all of this. On Sunday we got the call that he might not make it through the night and our flight was scheduled to leave close to midnight. Just a little over 6 weeks before his 18th birthday at 12:27 EST on the 28th of July, in New York City my son took his final breath as his siblings and I were just getting to the airport to be with him. The hardest thing anyone can do is bury their child, we ask for any donations to help support the medical cost, funeral, and any other repeated expenses we have came across during this time of need.

Thank you

Sincerely

The Blanchard family