Parents face huge decision for son
When Aly and Hayden Keeling arrived in New York with hopes of finding a cure for their son’s rare cancer, they found out his tumour had doubled in size.
They were forced to have the discussion of going forward with treatment or preparing 2-year-old Corey for hospice.
‘‘It was do we give Corey the best life possible without damaging his quality of life? But we’ve come all this way and we decided we couldn’t not do anything,’’ American-born Aly said.
The Keelings, from Taranaki, moved their lives to America a month ago after Corey was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system, that only two hospitals in the world could treat.
Due to the tumour growing, the initial surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York was cancelled. They were presented with an option of ICE chemotherapy, which is very strong, and as it would be Corey’s seventh round of chemo they were unsure it would even work.
‘‘If Corey responded we would continue on with the treatment and if he didn’t we made the decision we would stop and come back to New Zealand. These last scans were going to tell us if our son was going to live or die.’’
The scans showed Corey was a fighter and had responded well to the ICE chemo. His tumour had shrunk back to its original size, which meant he could go through with surgery.
The surgeon, Dr Michael La Quaglia the number one neuroblastoma surgeon in the world, removed a large portion of Corey’s liver and believes he got the whole tumour, Aly said.
‘‘But we still don’t know. We’ve been told before the tumour has been removed and then it comes back. Corey’s cancer has proved to be very aggressive.’’
Aly said Corey was doing well but a bit uncomfortable.
‘‘He was up and walking around today but moving across the world, he’s changed. He’s so young but I think he knows a lot more than we give him credit for.’’
At the time of the move to New York they were unsure if Corey, a duel citizen of New Zealand and America, would be eligible for healthcare insurance. Fortunately he was, otherwise the family would have been looking at a $2 million medical bill.
‘‘It’s insane how much it costs. He’s lucky to be a dual citizen and to get that but it just breaks my heart for all the families in New Zealand that have to go through this.’’
The Keelings have rented an apartment in Manhattan to be close to the hospital, which Aly said was very expensive.
Throughout their journey a GiveALittle page has been running, which has seen more than $82,000 donated to Aly and Hayden from friends, family, and complete strangers. ‘‘We’ve been blown away by the support. The funds raised allow us to live here and we don’t know how long we’ll be here for, it could be potentially another year,’’ she said. ‘‘We take one day at a time, we can’t make any plans for the future.’’