Tom Dellaira's Got Guts

Tom Dellaira’s Got Guts—and Wants to Be Able to Use Them Again

It all started in July 2016 with the diagnosis of an abdominal tumor, a liposarcoma, to be exact. For Tom Dellaira—a husband, father, and grandfather who has worn many hats in his life, from movie maker to general contractor, writer to maker of roll-out shelves—the news that would turn his life upside down came out of the blue. It arrived just as he and his wife, Jamie, were getting ready to drive from their home in Albuquerque to Denver to go shopping with Tommy’s daughters, Ava and Laura, for a wedding dress. After dinner on the second night in Denver, with the shopping completed, he and Jamie broke the news.

Tommy, a vigorous and otherwise healthy 64-year-old, suddenly faced a life-threatening illness. His days in the weight room and on the golf course were abruptly numbered. Before long, the food-loving cook who made his own wine in the backyard would be denied his favorite foods and drinks. The Dellaira home, which for decades has been the gathering place for a wide and highly diverse community of friends—for dinners, friendly poker games, graduation celebrations, birthday parties, bocce tournaments—soon fell under the shadow of an uncertain prognosis.

The first surgery, performed at UNM Hospital in Albuquerque on September 9, 2016, went well, removing a football-size nine-pound growth from Tommy’s abdomen. A second surgery, in October 2016, was needed to relieve a blockage in his intestines that was apparently caused by scar tissue from the first surgery and imperiled his ability to digest properly. That surgery did not go as planned. The scar tissue was so dense that the blockage could not be addressed, and a colostomy was performed.

Then, in September 2017, a second tumor was discovered adjacent to one of Tommy’s kidneys. (Liposarcomas are notorious for aggressively popping up throughout the body, wherever fat cells can be found, in rapid succession.) A third surgery was set for the fall. The surgeons planned to remove the tumor and the kidney that it was growing around, and to reverse the colostomy and reconnect his colon. However, when the surgeons opened Tommy up, they could not access any of these structures because of the dense scar tissue that had developed from the previous surgeries. They sewed him back up and delivered the unhappy news.

In an attempt to reduce the tumor and prevent new ones, Tommy’s trusted oncologist, Olivier Rixe, MD, PhD, at UNM Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center, prescribed a chemo treatment using Yondelis in December 2017. The chemo was started as a prerequisite for an immunotherapy clinical trial that Dr. Rixe was eager to get Tommy started on. In March 2018, he was moved to that clinical trial. The good news is that this has apparently slowed the tumor’s growth significantly, but ultimately and unfortunately, he was unable to tolerate the continued treatments.

Worse, his digestive system refused to function properly, and various fistulas developed, further complicating the situation. Basically, his guts were all messed up, causing him continual discomfort and unpleasant responses to any attempt to eat or drink normally. He was increasingly weak and unable to work or leave the house beyond trips to see his doctors, and he lost a lot of weight, dropping from 160 pounds to 112 pounds. From September 2018 onward, he was basically unable to eat, and he was placed on TPN, a form of liquid nutrition that is fed through a port in his chest directly into a vein.

By this time, his treatment options had dwindled to almost nothing. He had been told by surgeons here at UNM Hospital and at UCLA that he was not a surgical candidate. Participation in immunotherapy clinical trials, which were no guarantee of success, were closed to him until he could reestablish his strength.

Despite everything, Tommy soldiered on. He continued to maintain a hopeful outlook and refused to be defeated. He drew strength from Jamie; Laura; his new granddaughter, Gia, and her mom, Ava, and dad, Doug; and his circle of friends.

Then, all their prayers and good wishes seemed to have an effect. Several new options for treating his cancer suddenly appeared within days of one another. The most immediately promising was the discovery—by Tommy’s brother, Michael—of a doctor at Memorial Sloane Kettering who believed that he could surgically help improve Tommy’s quality of life.

In March 2019, Tommy and Jamie flew to New York from Albuquerque to meet Dr. Daniel Coit. The trip was exhausting for Tommy, but the opportunity to explore this possibility could not be passed up.

Dr. Coit, who has a great demeanor and exudes a confidence uncontaminated by arrogance, told Tommy that he saw no reason why he couldn’t operate and improve Tommy’s quality of life greatly. “We’ve seen much worse than your situation,” he said. To hear that lifted Tommy’s heart, especially after having been told by more than one specialist that he wasn’t a surgical candidate.

Dr. Coit explained what he would anticipate doing, which was to put Tommy’s guts back together. He would reverse the colostomy, reconnecting as much of the colon as was feasible, and eliminate the fistulas. He also believed he might be able to reduce the size of the tumor somewhat.

So Tommy and Jamie returned to New Mexico, waiting for a date for the surgery and their return to New York. Three weeks later, as Tommy sat in the UNM Cancer Center getting one of his four weekly hydration infusions to help build his strength for surgery, he received a call from Dr. Coit. The doctor told him that after further reviewing his images and history and after consulting with colleagues, he had decided he would not do the surgery because the risk that the surgery would leave Tommy in worse condition was too high.

So with that call, Dr. Coit dashed the hopes and expectations that he had helped build, leaving Tommy disappointed but still determined to pursue a solution. Dr. Coit provided two referrals—Dr. Raphael Pollack at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus, and Dr. Chandrajit Raut of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston—surgeons who, he thought, might be willing to take on Tommy’s case.

So Tommy’s brother picked up the ball again and forwarded Tommy’s medical history to these two doctors, with the hope that they would see a way to improve his condition without an elevated risk. Tommy contacted both institutions and was particularly impressed with the staff at OSU, who were warm, considerate, professional, punctual, and comprehensive in their dealings with him. So when they informed Tommy that they would take his case, his response was basically “Hallelujah!”

The surgeons at OSU intend to remove Tommy’s tumor, along with the kidney and spleen that it is enveloping, reverse the colostomy, and reconnect the intestinal track, putting him back together again.

He is to report to the cancer center there on June 27 where Presurgical consults with radiology, anesthesiology, and the surgical team will take place on the following days, and the surgery itself will be performed on July 2. OSU been most accommodating in scheduling this so that Tommy and Jamie need make only a single trip. How long he will need to remain in Ohio is unknown at this point, but he had been told recovery could take anywhere from three weeks to six months.

Tommy and Jamie have already accumulated close to five figures in debt for the New York trip, placed on a high-limit credit card. The expense for the Ohio trip will add significantly to that debt.

They need your help. Your contribution will go a long way to relieving their anxiety about their financial situation. It will allow them to stay focused on the pursuit of lifesaving surgery and the long recovery. Perhaps most important, it will put air under their wings knowing that they have your support. That is a therapeutic benefit that the medical professionals cannot provide.

We ask you to give as generously as you are able. We welcome any amount. It doesn’t matter if it’s $5, $50, $500, or $5,000. It all contributes to the well-being of our dear friend Tommy Dellaira. We also ask that you share this GoFundMe page with your social media contacts to widen the pool of potential donors.

Your contribution will be used to pay off the New York trip and support the expenses of travel, lodging, and food for the Ohio trip. We cannot know what the ultimate costs will be. If there are any funds in excess of those needed for these expenses, they will be donated to UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center in Albuquerque; CHRISTUS St. Vincent’s Regional Cancer Center in Santa Fe, where Tommy has recently reconnected with his beloved and brilliant oncologist, Dr. Rixe; and OSU.

Thank you for your participation.

Mel Minter

Robert Munro