The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘Close toa miracle’
Venezuelan boy with cancer helped by YNHH, doctors and Hamden Hall
HAMDEN >> A young Venezuelan boy diagnosed a decade ago with cancer is a medical miracle, according to his doctor, and it’s an outcome that likely wouldn’t have been possible but for the generosity of a network of services in the New Haven area.
Maurizio Candido, known as Mauri, will be heading home next week after spending the last few months living at the Ronald McDonald House in New Haven and attending Hamden Hall Country Day School.
“It’s a very pleasing story of some of our local institutions helping out a beleaguered boy and his family,” said Dr. Kenneth Roberts, who has been treating Mauri since he was diagnosed with soft-tissue sarcoma when he was 6.
“This is one of the more gratifying cases I’ve every had to deal with,” said Roberts, who has been with Yale New Haven Hospital for 25 years. “This was a child who really beat the odds and now is in the midst of dealing with long-term complications. We are getting that resolved with orthopedic surgery.”
Roberts became involved with Mauri’s care about 10 years ago, when he got a call from a colleague in Venezuela who told him about the boy who was diagnosed with soft-tissue sar
FROM PAGE 1 coma that started behind one knee and spread to his lymph nodes, abdomen and groin area. Soft tissue sarcoma is a cancer of the soft tissues, including muscle, fat, tendons and nerves. Treatment for diseases such as cancer that require specialized drugs and chemotherapy are hard to come by in Venezuela, Roberts said.
In addition to dealing with their son’s medical problems, his parents also had to deal with the social climate in Venezuela, which was deteriorating.
“As they were struggling to figure out how to take care of this kid, it was a bad time with social upheaval and medical care deteriorating,” Roberts said. Mauri needed chemotherapy and radiation, he said. “It wasn’t clear chemotherapy would be available,” he said. The drugs necessary were being imported from Cuba, and that supply was tenuous, Roberts said.
That call from his Venezuelan colleague set in motion a series of events that let to a series of trips to America for Mauri and his family and offers of free services, including medical treatment at Smilow, housing at the Ronald McDonald House and schooling for Mauri and his brother and sister at Hamden Hall.
“A lot of things came together to take care of this kid,” Roberts said. “The family had the resources to come to the United States, and we persuaded my colleagues to do some charity care, which not always easy to do.”
Over the past 10 years, Mauri has come to New Haven periodically for treatment, and despite only having a 10-15 percent chance of being cured, today is cancer-free, Roberts said.
“He ended up being disease free as years went on, and I was able to declare him disease free,” Roberts said. “He was amazingly cured. I would call it a miracle.”
But there were side effects of the treatment, the most serious of which was one leg being shorter than the other. As he got older, it increasingly affected him, leading to the decision to perform surgery this summer to lengthen the leg, Roberts said.
“They came back to the U.S. this summer for surgery and it went well,” he said, “but it became apparent he would need pretty protracted physical therapy to regain use of (the) leg.” So his family decided stay in New Haven to get proper physical therapy and follow up care, he said.
That meant the children would need to go to school here, Roberts said. His parents looked into registering them in public schools, but it became clear that would be difficult, given the language barrier. A colleague, Dr. Meena Moran, learned of the situation and approached Hamden Hall, where her children attend and she sits on the board of trustees. She approached Hamden Hall Head of School Bob Izzo, who immediately offered the children a place there.
“One of our core values at Hamden Hall is support and I can’t think of a greater way to exemplify that fundamental belief than to support the Candido family during their time in our country,” Izzo said. “We continually strive to create a culture of social responsibility and global awareness for our students and giving back to the greater community is certainly integral to that mission.”
“They took family in and the children had amazingly great experience” at Hamden Hall, Roberts said. Before starting at Hamden Hall, Mauri was getting depressed because walking was so difficult, he said. Being at the school “really accelerated his rehabilitation,” Roberts said.
Friday was the children’s last day at Hamden Hall. Next week, they head back to Venezuela but will likely return to New Haven next summer for follow-up surgery, Roberts said. Ultimately, the family wants to settle here permanently, he said.
“Over the years, I have gotten to know family pretty well,” he said. “They’re delightful. But with the total disaster going on in Venezuelan society with high unemployment, everybody there is struggling. They were well-educated, middle-class folks at a desperate end with all that is going on in their country, so it was kind of a respite to be able to come here.”
And the combined generosity of the hospital donating its services, the Ronald McDonald house giving them a place to call home and Hamden Hall offering free education made the “miracle” complete, Roberts said.
“These local institutions came together to give them respite from troubles back home and provide a positive experience for the kids,” he said, noting it also was an opportunity for growth for the other Hamden Hall students who got to meet a family from another country. “It was very nice of Hamden Hall to help them out.”
This is a particularly gratifying story for me as oncologist,” he said. “I consider it close to a miracle. It was a delightful to see him get cured and develop into a fine young man.”