Surgeons at Children's Memorial Hospital, while removing fluid from the 4-day-old baby's brain, discovered a large mass. A biopsy confirmed devastating news.
Matthew has cancer, they said. The Ericksons were stricken with fear. How, they wondered, can a baby be born with cancer?
There was more.
The baby suffers from an especially aggressive form of brain tumor, a high-grade glioma, most often diagnosed in adults, the doctors said. The cancer, whose causes are unknown, had already engulfed most of the right hemisphere of Matthew's brain. Only about five children nationally are born with such a rare, usually fatal, condition each year, his doctors said.
"Why him?" said Sue Erickson, 33. Her eyes welled as she recalled her initial reaction. "It's just not fair."
The doctors said they would understand if the couple took their baby home with hospice care, loved him and waited for the inevitable.
But the team of specialists offered another option: chemotherapy, a toxic potion used to target and kill cancer cells that has shown mixed success with infants. The drug, to be delivered intravenously, offers no guarantees. It could, in fact, cause additional long-term damage, or even hasten Matthew's demise.
Ben, 34, blurted out the first question that came to his mind: "Is Matthew dying? Was he born dying?"
The oncologist replied no, that Matthew's organs were functioning normally and, aside from the malignant tumor, he was healthy.
"That was a pivotal answer to me," Ben said. "If he's not dying, let's let him live. Let's give him a shot."
Their baby had proved to be a fighter, after all, thriving after brain surgery. The couple rallied, found support from their families and friends and chose to view the daunting journey ahead as a blessing.
"We just looked at each other and said, 'If there's any chance at all, we have to give it to him,'" Sue said.
