Leo’s Battle,

Many of you have followed Leo’s Journey from his premature birth at only 25 1/2 weeks, born on May 24th, 2024 weighing only 1.2 lbs through his first year of life. He was flown out from Henrico Dr’s hospital to Children’s National in D.C. to have a Clip procedure to close his heart, he had eye injection ‘s and then eye surgery to prevent him from going blind, he had a G tube and then a G J tube put in, he has been on a ventilator since birth and had a trach put in.. Leo has also endured many respiratory infections, etc due to under developed lungs at birth and has chronic lung disease. He also had 2 brain bleeds at birth which also gave him a confirmed diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. He has been in the hospital most of his life and he has only been at home with Rachel and Jeremy for maybe 1 month total since his birth.

With all that Leo has been through, recently, Rachel felt a lump on his abdomen, and told the nurses and doctors about it. They did a scan and discovered a mass on his Liver. They did a biopsy on him, and he seemed to be doing OK after the biopsy until that Thursday night. I got a call from Jeremy saying that his stats were dropping and they were losing him and that they thought he was dying to get to the hospital as fast as we could. When we got to the hospital they told us that he had gone into cardiac arrest, but they were able to bring him back. Thank you God!! The doctors said that he was in critical, but stable/unstable condition. They put him into medically induced coma and on a paralytic. They even had his head covered with a cap that was able to detect whether or not he was having any seizures while he was in the medically induced coma. On Saturday, they took him off the paralytic and by Sunday he was opening his eyes and able to move his hands and feet a little bit, but he is still sedated. Tuesday they had a family meeting and Leo was Diagnosed with Hepatoblastoma well differentiated fetal.

While it is cancer that is treatable, in Leo’s case, it is much more complicated. He is too small for a transplant and would not survive. He is too small for radiation, and the tumor is wrapped around 2 lobes of his liver right now and at the moment surgery is not an option. Since Leo had cardiac arrest, he has been on the hospital ventilator and his numbers are improving. If he continues to do well and they can get him back on his home vent and stays stable, the are going to try chemo in 3 separate rounds to try to reduce the size of the tumor so that they can then safely remove two lobes the tumor is on. Thankfully the tumor has not metastasized into other parts of his body. Chemo can make anyone sick no matter what age and can definitely cause pneumonia and respiratory issues as well as other bad side effects along with weakening his immune system, which is already compromised… We are asking for continued prayers for our sweet Leo and that he will make it through his chemo treatments needed to reduce the tumor

Leo is our strong brave lion warrior, and he Will win this battle too

Rachel and Jeremy have been also staying at the Ronald McDonald house close by the hospital VCU children’s hospital since they live over an hour away.

Please pray for Leo while he fights this Battle, and for Rachel and Jeremy as well.

We need your prayers.

Many people have asked me about Leo’s Journey GoFundMe, as they wanted to make donations to it, but I had closed it. That’s is why I am starting this new GoFundMe at their request.

We are so thankful for all of your continued prayers and donations.

Leo Will Win this Battle with gods help, and his wonderful team of doctors and nurses and with all of your prayers

God Bless,

Nana Lisa, and our entire family!