Alberto Rojas

'Beating the Odds'

At 13, Alberto loved football, skateboarding, playing video games with his older brother, and hanging out with his family and friends.   I guess you could say he was your 'average teenage kid'.  However, Alberto's teen years would unfold with anything but average. Football and skateboarding were soon replaced by radiation and chemotherapy. Hanging with family and friends was suddenly replaced by fear of infection.  

 Alberto's journey began one regular Friday afternoon back in August of 2008.  Alberto came home from school with  bad abdominal pain.  After a trip to the hospital and some x-rays, Alberto was told he was just "backed up" which is just a fancy term for 'constipated'.  He was treated with an enigma and sent home.  A few hours later Alberto was back in the ER with the same pain.  They basically repeated the same routine and sent him home again.  Not until the third trip to the ER did they finally realize there was something seriously wrong and Alberto was immediately transferred to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, FL.  Third times a charm right?

 There was no charm here.  Just fear and confusion of what was happening. After arriving that Sunday by ambulance at 2:00am to Joe DiMaggio, Alberto immediately had an MRI.  The doctors informed the family it appeared he had a blood clot in the sacral area. This made sense as he had fractured his tailbone 2 weeks prior.  However, when they went in to do the surgery and remove the blood clot, the doctor informed Alberto's parents that it did not look good and that samples needed to be tested to confirm what this was. After five agonizing days waiting for answers and watching Alberto struggle in immense pain, the family was told that their son had a rare form of soft bone tissue cancer called Ewing Sarcoma.

 Alberto immediately began an intense series of  chemotherapy and radiation. Believing the cancer to be Stage 1 at this time, the doctors informed the family that this cancer had an 80% cure rate.  Unfortunately, right before the chemo treatment began a PET scan revealed that he also had nodules in his lungs. A biopsy confirmed this was the same Ewing Sarcoma. These results, sent Alberto from an 80% cure rate to 10%.  These are not the odds any parent wants to ever have to hear. Needless to say, the family was devastated by this unexpected news.

 Although shocked with this turn of events, the family decided their Faith  was bigger than this disease and with the support of his family and his faith in God, Alberto began his long and arduous battle against cancer. The chemotherapy drugs were strong and Alberto had to be hospitalized through the year while he received different chemo medications. He lost his hair but he never lost his faith.  He fought, and fought hard. 

A year later, Alberto has completed treatment. So much for 80%!  He continues to be scanned and have his blood tested regularly.  He is not quite back to football or skateboarding, but baseball and track have become a fun pastime until he can jump full force back into the sports that he loves. 

 Please pray for Alberto and his family as they continue to beat the odds!