Save Pieter's Vision and His Life

While we try to teach our children all about life….. sometimes our children teach us what life is all about.  Pieter is our friends' Irma and Joe's loving and adorable son, who is only 4.5 years old.  From his pictures you can see that he has been fighting his battle for his entire life, and he continues to fight every day.  He was diagnosed with Bilateral Retinoblastoma (cancer in both eyes) at one week old in our country, Indonesia.  His left eye was enucleated at the age of two weeks, and he started to receive chemotherapy at three weeks, once a month for nine cycles.  He then had to undergone TTT laser surgery under anesthesia every month and received multiple rounds of systemic chemotherapy.

Just like his name “Pieter”, which means faith, he is a true warrior physically and in faith.  He has been fighting for his life and his sight his entire young life.  For each morning that Irma and Joe, as parents, wake up and he’s healthy and able to see us, they are thankful to the Lord and it seems as if nothing in the world matters anymore.   But then reality sneaks back in and they know that Pieter’s situation is still highly uncertain and for each and every day to come  he must stay healthy and cancer-free so he doesn’t lose the vision that he has in his remaining eye.  They have done everything in their power to do all that can be done for Pieter to save his life, his sight and his remaining eye, not only in Indonesia but also in the USA, one of a handful of places in the world where the necessary treatments of Intraocular Plaque Brachytherapy and Inter Arterial Chemotherapy (IAC) are available.

After Pieter had been treated in America with Intraocular Plaque Brachytherapy in December 2013, the retinoblastoma had been stable.  But unfortunately in August 2015, the tumor in his only remaining eye regrew, and the only option was to treat him with Inter Arterial Chemotherapy (IAC) that once again is not available in our country.  In their country there is no insurance (private or government) that could accept a pre-existing condition like his eye cancer, and his parents are not eligible for health insurance in the USA; so all of his treatment since birth has been financed by his Mom and Dad.  Because of the need for continuous treatment that wthey must get in both countries, they have sold their home to bring him to Philadelphia so that he could receive the treatments required to save his life and vision. Wills Eye Center, together with Jefferson Neuroscience, offers both of the specialized therapies that are the only possible cure for his condition.

As a result of tumor regrowth, Pieter now faces IAC therapy that must be surgically performed once a month for three months, at a minimal cost of $95,000, with another $20,000 needed for the monthly surgical examinations in Indonesia and in the USA to follow up and monitor him closely for two years after the IAC procedure to ensure that everything stays under control.  They have already sold their house, and along with your kind generosity in our 2014 GoFundMe effort, have managed to pay the last two year’s $100,000 out of pocket medical expenses for Pieter.  Now, this year, they are already taking out loans where possible to save Pieter’s life and vision, but they still lack $20,000 to meet even the anticipated costs, not to mention the unanticipated.

They will be eternally grateful for any help, no matter how much, that you could contribute in Pieter’s journey to save his sight and his life.  As parents, they are certainly giving otheir best effort humanly possible for their son, and they continue to always have hope in the results, but ultimately we want Pieter to know that he is loved and being fought for... So we are all grateful for the love that you would share with them and Pieter on this long journey that is far from over.