Hudsen's Story

---

On January 13th, 2017 our family received devastating news. Our 7-year-old nephew Hudsen was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma DIPG for short. Hudsen's initial symptoms came on very quickly. He went from being a happy and healthy 7-year-old who had the most infectious laugh I have ever heard, to having his right eye turn in, drooling, difficulty swallowing, speaking and walking within weeks. After Hudsen's diagnosis he had a port placed in his chest for easy blood draw access and began a steroid regimen and started his 30 radiation treatments in February at Hershey Medical Center. The hope of the radiation was to shrink the tumor to allow more quality time and to lessen his symptoms. Unfortunately that did not happen with Hudsen. When he finished his radiation Hudsen his Mom, Dad, brother, and sister took a Make A Wish trip to Legoland Florida. Hudsen loved legos, video games, his dogs and cat. Upon their return home his mom and dad applied for a clinical trial in New York at Sloan Kettering Memorial which was offering an experimental treatment to get chemo directly to the tumor by going down through the brain. Most of these clinical trials are not covered by medical insurance, so we did many fundraisers for Hudsen. After an MRI was done his tumor was considered stable and he was accepted into the clinical trial to have the procedure done on May 25th, 2017. The procedure did not go well, he had swelling in the brain, could not swallow and could not use the left side of his body. After spending 11 days in New York, they transferred him closer to home to Hershey for inpatient physical therapy and he had a feeding tube placed. After 2 weeks in Hershey he was sent home in a wheelchair and he wasn't able to walk again. He turned 8 when he was at Hershey and said he wanted to wait to have a birthday party when he could walk and run and play with his friends and family. The end of July Hudsen had another MRI done which showed a great deal of progression and that the tumor was growing. After that hospice was called. His body was shutting down and he was fully aware. He wanted to remain at home surrounded by loved ones. On September 5th, 2017, after an almost 8-month battle Hudsen lost his fight against DIPG. From the words of his father, "He fought so brave, he fought so hard, he was a true warrior."