Liams Tribute

Taken from https://www.carepages.com/carepages/LiamsLighthouse

Liam was born on January 2, 2008...the happiest day of our lives. When he was 4 months old, Liam started getting cyclical fevers, usually lasting a week, but occurring at the same time each month. For about the next 10 months, Liam had been to pediatricians, oncologists, infectious disease specialists, hematologists, and rheumatologists, but none were able to figure out what caused his fevers.

On March 26, 2009, Liam was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder, Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis, or HLH. HLH is a fatal disease if not treated in time and even then there is no guarantee. Our son faced chemotherapy and a cord blood transplant at hopes of beating this disease. It is not cancer but is treated like it. Words cannot describe the fear and sorrow that enter a parent's heart when given such news. On one hand, we were relieved that we finally arrived at a diagnosis, on the other we were so scared.

We decided the best place for him was Cincinnati Children's Hospital under the care of Dr. Lisa Filipovich, expert in the field of HLH. Out of 13 million donors world wide, there was not a suitable match for Liam. The doctors told us he had a rare HLA typing and therefore he received a cord blood 4/6 match from an unrelated donor. His transplant was a success with a 93% donor cell engraftment study result. However, Liam suffered complications from a viral infection. Our trip to Cincy began on April 15, 2009 and ended on September 12, 2009.

Liam earned his angel wings on September 9, 2009 after a long and hard battle post BMT. Now the only thing we can do is stick together with our family and friends and try to increase awareness of Histiocytosis. Out little Liam was a fighter (Liam means "Powerful Warrior") and we welcome you to browse "Liam's Lighthouse", because there will always be a light shining in our son's heart.

Video was made by someone else but I was asked to do a presentation with it