Blood drive being held for 2-year-old with leukemia
Lucy, the Zangrilli family’s black Labrador retriever, was the first to notice that 2-year-old Aiden Zangrilli, may be sick, Aiden’s grandmother, Kim Zangrilli, said.
“We really think the lab knew he was sick,” she said. “Aiden would lay on the floor and Lucy would snuggle up next to him and whimper.”
It is said animals can sometimes sense things before humans do. And unfortunately, Lucy may have been right. After catching hand-foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious and very common children’s virus, following several visits to a local daycare center, Aiden did not seem to be recovering.
“He just never got better,” Kim said.
Symptoms of the HFMD include a fever, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea. Aiden was running a temperature of 103.8. Kim, her husband, Ralph, and Aiden’s father, Tony Zangrilli, took the toddler to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
The news the South Park family received from the doctors was grim. Aiden was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML, marker 5). This is a rare form of cancer, according to the Central Blood Bank. It starts inside bone marrow. This is also the kind of cancer that grows from cells that would normally become white blood cells. It progresses quickly and can become fatal.
“He was diagnosed with leukemia Dec. 1,” Kim said. “He got the flu on top of that.”
Plus, shortly after being admitted to Children’s Hospital, Aiden went into respiratory distress and was unable to walk because the cancer was in the bone marrow of his hips and legs which causes pain when weight is applied.
Since getting the diagnosis, the Zangrilli family has not left the ninth floor of the hospital, the floor for hematology and oncology patients. Kim took a leave of absence from her job at a local home remodeling company and Tony, 31, who is separated from Aiden’s mother, Katrina, who is from the Columbus, Ohio area, also took a leave of absence from his job as a car salesman. Ralph Zangrilli, an operations manager for an inventory company, works from home.
“He (Ralph) had just gotten the job when Aiden was diagnosed,” she said. Insurance is covering all of Aiden’s expenses, the Zangrilli’s said.
Kim has not left her grandson’s side since his medical ordeal began. She sleeps either on the couch in the room, or in the bed with Aiden. Tony, meanwhile, spends most of his days and nights with his son, though he sometimes will go to his South Park home. The family brought a Christmas tree from home and spent Christmas with Aiden in the hospital.
The Zangrilli’s have transformed Aiden’s room into a play room to make him feel like he has never left home. Aiden’s favorite toys are a stove that Tony built and a lawnmower. Kim said Aiden likes to make coffee for his visitors and has become a bit of a terror on the hallways of the ninth floor with his lawnmower. He has to wear a mask when he ventures outside of his room.
“He is full of joy and happiness and he brings it out in you,” Tony said.
When he needs to rest, both Kim and Tony encourage Aiden to read his books or work on his puzzles, something he has become quite good at, his grandmother said proudly. He also likes Elmo, feeding ducks at the pond, and Thomas the Train.
“He knows where A and Z are located in the alphabet,” Kim said.
Kim said it is important to keep Aiden engaged. His illness has slowed his development, she said. Though to see Aiden, he looks like a typical 2-year-old with chubby cheeks and a ready smile. She said the chemo treatments has caused some of his blonde hair to fall out.
“He had a lot of hair to begin with,” Kim said.
So far, Aiden has had two rounds of chemotherapy, which he takes from a port located by his right shoulder. An internal tube delivers the medicine to his heart.
“Every 12 hours, two times a day for 10 days,” said Kim, who along with her husband and Tony, try their best to distract Aiden during those treatments. She said Aiden knows he is sick.
“He calls his tubes ‘tubies’ and his pain ‘owies,'” explained Kim, while Aiden lifted his shirt to show a visitor his port.
“When he was in ICU, he would look up and see us and say ‘Yo Pop Pop, Nunny Mummy Kim and Daddy,”’ she said.
Right now the Zangrilli’s are waiting for Aiden’s test results to see if another round of chemotherapy is needed. Those results should be available in three weeks, she said. He has shown signs of improvement, said Kim. When Aiden was first admitted to Children’s, there were cancer cells in his liver and kidneys, which have disappeared.
Depending on the test results, Aiden may have two more rounds of chemotherapy treatments. Right now, the Zangrilli’s hope the results show Aiden is going into remission. Besides additional chemotherapy, Aiden may have to have a stem cell transplant, Kim said. Because of the type of leukemia that Aiden has, he is not eligible for a bone marrow transplant.
Aiden has undergone more than 20 blood transfusions including platelets and plasma. The chemotherapy kills his red blood cells, necessitating those transfusions, Kim said. From 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Feb. 8 and noon-6 p.m. Feb. 9, the Central Blood Bank will hold a blood drive on Aiden’s behalf at the Jefferson Regional Health Pavilion, Bethel Park. Anyone who donates blood for Aiden also has the option of joining Be The Match Registry, the National Marrow Donor Program, free of charge by completing additional paperwork and submitting to a sample mouth swab, the blood bank said.
Kim said her immediate – and extended – family have been incredibly helpful. They have started a Facebook page, facebook.com/forthesakeofaiden, where people can receive health updates and see the toddler’s latest photos.
“I feel very blessed,” Kim said. “We would not have been able to get by without family.”