Please Pray For Zach

April '04 Zach came to visit Steven during his 4th stem cell transplant

Please, please pray with us for our buddy Zach.

We met Zach at St. Jude when we arrived there in October 2003 for Steven's radiation treatments. Zach is a year younger than Steven, and he had radiation at the same time for a different sort of brain tumor.

August '04 Steven and Zach at Elepalooza during Steven's first followup visit

We've become very good friends with Zach and his family (he has four brothers).

Although Zach's brain tumor is considered a benign, low-grade tumor with a relatively good prognosis for a pediatric brain tumor, Zach has had a very rough time of it.

November '04 Steven and Zach waiting for their brain MRI's

Zach has stenosis of the arteries in his brain, a somewhat rare side effect of radiation to the brain. Last fall they discovered that the carotid artery in Zach's brain was 80% blocked.

Last Thursday Zach had revascularization surgery in an attempt to cause new blood vessels to grow in his brain to compensate for the blocked blood vessels.

November '05 Steven and Zach at Le Bonheur hospital after Zach's angiogram

He came out of the surgery like a champ and went home Saturday morning.

But he returned to the hospital late last night due to a debilitatingly painful migraine and coordination issues.

March '06 Steven and Zach playing foosball at Grizzlies House

He worsened through the night and an MRI today revealed that he had a stroke. Zach's symptoms continue to worsen and he's been moved to intensive care.

They can't do anything but observe him, because of his recent surgery he is not a candidate for any of the treatments for stroke.

We love you Zach.

- Kathleen

Zach's caringbridge site
Zach's thestatus site (id=ross, pwd=reason-mail)