<div>On Friday, April 11, 2025, Colette Tini was taken to urgent care after her parents, Eileen and Chris, decided that the persistent cough and shortness of breath she had been experiencing were not normal and not improving. Upon her examination at urgent care, 2-year-old Colette was immediately sent to the emergency department at Nemours Children’s Hospital for difficulty breathing and low oxygen levels. A chest x-ray showed what looked like pneumonia, but a CT scan was ordered to be sure.
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<div>A couple of hours later, two doctors from hematology and oncology told Eileen and Chris that there was a very large mass compressing Colette’s left lung, large enough that it was pushing her heart to the other side of her body. Things moved quickly as doctors and radiologists entered the room asking questions and preparing to take Colette in for a procedure to drain and biopsy the mass.
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<div><em>Before being taken back for her procedure, a surgeon informed Eileen and Chris that they believed her mass to be a rare congenital tumor called a </em><strong><em>Pleuropulmonary Blastoma (PPB)</em></strong><em>.</em> They continue to learn more about this cancer each day.
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<div>Colette remained intubated for a week and a half after her biopsy procedure, with Eileen and Chris at her bedside each day, while also alternating nights home to be with their 5-year-old son, Everett. Colette started chemo the day after she was admitted to the hospital. She shocked all of her doctors and nurses in the PICU, showing them her strength and resilience and her opinionated nature - if any commercials interrupted her “Bluey” viewing, she let them know! Once she was able to have her breathing tube removed, Colette has continued to show that she can handle any challenge as she surpasses everyone’s expectations of her recovery.
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<div>After a two and a half week stay in the PICU, Colette has finally moved to the oncology floor to focus on her treatment, getting her strength back after being bedridden for so long, and receiving proper respiratory support. Colette remains in the hospital while she is being weaned off of her high-flow oxygen machine and practices her fine and gross motor skills each day. She is surrounded by her favorite baby dolls and countless stuffed animals and pink blankets. She loves being read to and watching Bluey and always smiles and giggles when she gets a visit from her big brother, Everett.
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<div>As much as her family wants Colette home, they are confident she is getting the very best care at Nemours.
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<div><strong><em>To add to the chaos of this nightmare scenario, Eileen is also pregnant with a baby girl, due at the end of September.</em></strong> Colette is going to make an incredible big sister. She loves babies and has such a caring and nurturing nature. Eileen and Chris will do everything they can, along with her health care team, to get her better so she can shine in her new big sister role.
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<div><strong>Colette’s treatment will consist of 12 rounds of chemotherapy to shrink the mass, surgery to remove it, and several weeks of daily radiation.</strong> There are many unknowns as they begin this long battle, but as her doctors have noted, she is one “tough cookie.”
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<div>Along with the ups, downs, and unknowns of her treatment, Chris and Eileen will need to take intermittent unpaid leave from work over the next several months in order to take Colette for her inpatient chemo treatments, outpatient clinic visits for labs, scans, and transfusions, and other likely unplanned hospital stays along the way. Her care will become a full-time job for the foreseeable future. All of this, on top of the time off that will be needed once their new baby is born.
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<div><strong>Donations will help them cope with loss of income, as well as paying medical bills related to Colette’s care. </strong>Any amount would be appreciated, as well as sharing Colette's story.
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Help Colette Fight Her Rare Lung Cancer

Help Colette Fight Her Rare Lung Cancer

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