Rogan's fight against ATRT Brain Cancer
Recently, 7 month old Rogan Paiva was vomiting daily and regressing not meeting normal milestones for his age so on May 29th his mother rushed him to the emergency room at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence Rhode Island.
In the ER the Dr. on call told them his head size looked abnormal and ordered a CT. They found a halo sized tumor and two cysts in his
fourth ventricle pressing on his cerebellum and blocking the cerebral spinal fluid from circulating properly.
Rogan was rushed to and admitted to Hasbro's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The Doctors said Rogan was suffering from hydrocephalus caused by the Tumor in his brain. Immediately the neurosurgeons placed an EVD in his head to start draining the fluid. He had 5x the normal amount built up.
On June 2nd Rogan had to have major brain surgery to remove the cysts and tumor. The team of neurosurgeons removed as much as
possible without damaging his brain stem. They sent his tumor to the Lab and we waited for the biopsy results.
Rogan's tumor was diagnosed with an extremely rare brain cancer called Atypical Tetartoid Rhabdoid Tumor, referred to as AT/RT that carried the gene ATRX which made the tumor cancerous. This type of cancer affects less than 500 children a year in the U.S.
Though the tumor was removed, it spread into his cerebral spinal fluid in his spine. After two and a half weeks at Hasbro PICU, he had
recovered from the surgery and the hydrocephalus was under control Rogan was sent home to start fighting the cancer.
On July 2nd Rogan started Oral Chemotherapy and July 6th the oncologists will do his first lumber puncture, injecting chemo directly into his spinal fluid. This is the beginning of 42 weeks of treatment and lumbar punctures every 3 weeks to help keep the cancer at bay so his
little body can fight.
After spending weeks in the PICU at Hasbro, surgeries, treatment, and all that comes along with this fight are also endless hospital bills,
time away from work and monetary stress on his loving parents. Any help that you can give is greatly appreciated. If you cannot afford to
donate, please pray for Rogan and his family. Thank you!
Rogan, or Superman as we call him, is the strongest little man and we know he can beat this!
