One Percent Chance: A Mother's Story

With no appetite and a limp that quickly deteriorated into excruciating pain, a little six-year-old boy endured a month of doctor visits, a week-long hospitalization and surgery that left him and his parents with no diagnosis, no answers, but an abundance of fear. Through dogged determination and frantic research, the family found their way to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and started a three and one-half year protocol of daily chemotherapy for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Given a verdict of a one percent chance to survive, this is his mother’s story of the struggle to leave no stone unturned in fighting for her son’s life. It is the personal account from her own journals of the emotional roller coaster taken by the whole family -- including the initial medical struggles, setbacks and unflinching resolve, plus the side effects of the medical treatment. It is also the account of the boy's resulting learning disability and of the effort and ingenuity to secure a bright future for him. This book is about a mother’s all-encompassing love, about gut-wrenching terror, and a true chronicle of intense determination. It is a celebration of beating all the odds.