Shane's Train to Recovery

On August 5, 2020 we received devastating news that our 11-year-old nephew Shane Sweis was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia).

Shane is normally very active, loves playing outside, shooting hoops, and loved his karate class. My sister Roula noticed he was low energy, didn’t want to play outside, and he barely had the will to participate in his Karate classes. He didn’t even want to go hiking on their trip to Lake Arrowhead. When driving back from that trip, my sister made a doctor’s appointment to get blood work done for him. The next day they got the results, the doctor called Roula and said “take Shane to the hospital immediately, his blood counts are very concerning” (he had really low red and white blood cells). Roula rushed him to Huntington Hospital. They ran several blood tests and couldn’t nail down what Shane had. A doctor told Roula that she needs to take him to see an Oncologist. They took Shane in an ambulance to Children’s Miller Hospital in Long Beach where they ran several more tests. The news came back that Shane has AML and would need to start chemotherapy as soon as possible. The news shook our entire family but Roula & Numayr (her husband) had no choice but to start treatment.

Roula and Numayr took turns and rotated shifts at the hospital. It didn’t take long to start taking a toll on them. Hospitals are not known to be comfortable in any capacity. To make matters more difficult, COVID restrictions did not (and still do not) allow other family members to visit or take any shifts to relieve them. So Shane could not leave his room, could not have visitors, and Roula & Numayr couldn’t ask for help. On top of everything, the bank where Numayr was a manager had been acquired and closed with no warning. He was laid off with only a small severance package. This also eliminated their health insurance benefits, creating even more stress and uncertainty.

Shane is currently going through his 6th (and hopefully final) round of chemo and will do a bone marrow transplant at UCLA. Luckily his little brother Vince is a match, but it’s bitter-sweet because we now have to watch both our nephews go into the hospital for procedures. We are now in month 15 of this nightmare and the bills and invoices are piling up. We're starting this page to help relieve some of the financial burden that the Sweis family has been faced with.

Please keep Shane and his family in your prayers and if you can, please make a donation so that this medical emergency doesn’t destroy their financial future. If you are unable to donate, please share this page with your friends and family. You will be doing an amazing act of generosity for their family.

We thank you for your support and will keep you posted as we help Shane through this incredibly tough situation.

Saed & Mirna