Medical and living expenses.

My name is Tina Armenta (Burger) and I initially wanted to start this fundraiser to help my daughter, Amanda who was fighting for the life of my oldest grandson, Zioniah Matau, who is 9 years old, diagnosed with cancer, T cell lymphoma since November of 2022 who's been on aggressive treatment ever since. This morning my grandson passed away after a 10 month FIGHT to survive with courage and strength every day since and has endured more than anyone his age should ever have to. He was on a triple combination of chemotherapy, with weekly spinal taps, chemo injected into his spine, oral pills and infusions with high dose steroids for his particular cancer. He endured terrible side effects causing weight gain, then weight loss, nausea, diarrhea, blood clots and internal ulcers that led to severe anemia and depletion of his white cells leaving him unable to fight infections

This led to multiple surgeries and hospitalizations, in and out of the ICU. It took a grave toll on Zioniahs life and the ability to just be a kid in isolation away from school and friends, needing 24 hour care. My daughter did an incredible job caring for Zioniah with everything she had while raising two more children at home under three, splitting her time between the hospital and home with a limited income. Despite his medical teams best efforts, last month Zioniah stopped responding to treatment and the tumor grew back to its original size, causing him to be hospitalized long term to start even more aggressive treatment. This week while hospitalized, Zioniah was having trouble breathing and was rushed into emergency surgery where he stopped breathing and the team fought to keep him alive. Zioniah was put on a machine to help him breathe with a tube in his nose to remove the excess fluid that continued to build up in his lungs. Amanda was by his side 24-7 so every time Zioniah woke up, he saw her face and felt her hand holding his. Amanda had the support of Zioniah's fathers side of the family, and in particular his Auntie Feen who loves him and helped fight by his side and we are incredibly grateful for her help. This has taken a tremendous toll on Amanda and her family mentally, emotionally, physically and financially exhausting their sick/mecical leave. Amanda's boyfriend has had to take time off from work to care for the babies with no pay and they have depleted their savings. With no end in sight in the near future, I felt the grave need to ask for financial help to assist Amanda and her family to pay bills and help the father of their children continue to care for the babies while she's away at the hospital, but now we are asking for help to pay for Zioniahs funeral expenses. Amanda is a proud mama and really struggled with me setting up this go fund me, but she is in a difficult situation and needs all the help she can get. This will take a huge strain off her shoulders to offset some of their expenses and any help will be appreciated beyond words and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.