Miracle after miracle
Published: May 8, 2007
It took eight hours to remove the tumor from 7-year-old Jacob Petersen’s brain. Then came the hard part.
Jacob awoke from the operation at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago unable to speak or eat. He lay immobile in his hospital bed, paralyzed on his left side and breathing only with the help of a ventilator.
Two years later, Jacob, with his father’s help, raced to the top of the 83-story Aon Center in 29 minutes. The 1,136-foot climb was a fundraiser for the hospital that nursed him back to health.
Today, Jacob’s surgeon, Dr. Tadanori Tomita, marvels at the Naperville boy’s “enormous recovery.”
Jacob’s mom describes it another way. “There was miracle after miracle after miracle,” says Debbie Petersen.
One tough kid
But perhaps the biggest factor in Jacob’s recovery, his doctor says, is Jacob himself.
“He’s one of the toughest kids I know,” says Tomita. “He never whined.”
Every year, more than 40,000 Americans are diagnosed with brain tumors, some malignant and some benign.
He had experienced baffling vision problems and headaches for half a year before an MRI finally detected the cause — a one-inch tumor called an epidermoid cyst that began growing before the boy’s birth.
Fortunately, the tumor was benign, meaning it wouldn’t spread. But it was in an unusual — and very dangerous — place, right in front of the brain stem, where the brain connects to the spinal cord. Tomita has done about 1,500 brain surgeries. Just four have involved epidermoid cysts in this spot.
What Tomita found was a cyst surrounded by sensitive nerve roots, each no thicker than a hair on your head. First, the surgeon tried to drain the cyst using a thin tube. But the tube became clogged. So he had to try something far riskier — removing the cyst. With the aid of a high-powered microscope, he painstakingly moved aside the nerves to get at the tumor, trying not to damage them.
Despite all of the surgeon’s efforts, that’s just what happened. Early on after surgery, Jacob “looked just like a stroke victim,” Debbie Petersen says.
Being positive
Seeing Jacob looking that way made some visitors weep. Still, even then, there were reasons for hope. The brain — especially a young brain — is resilient.
The turning point for Jacob came about three weeks after his surgery, when doctors attempted to take him off the ventilator. They’d tried to do that twice before and couldn’t, leaving Jacob terrified and gasping for breath. This time, when the breathing tube came out, Jacob again began struggling to breathe. But just when it looked like he would have to go back on the machine, he raised his right hand.
Prayer
He couldn’t talk. But his dad, David Petersen, guessed what he wanted. “Do you want to pray?” the father asked.
Jacob nodded.
David Petersen asked everyone to leave. Then, he leaned over his son’s bed, held his hand and prayed aloud: “Heavenly Father, please be with Jacob right now and strengthen his lungs.”
And that, he says, is when Jacob was finally able to breathe on his own.
Fundraising race
Jacob was among 2,400 people who climbed the Aon Center on Jan. 28 for the annual fundraising race.
His dad held his left hand as they climbed the stairs of Chicago’s second-tallest building together. Jacob stumbled a few times. Twice, he stopped for 10 seconds or so to catch his breath.
But he kept going.
When he and his dad reached the top, Jacob was sweating and out of breath but ecstatic. He exchanged hugs and high-fives with his tearful parents and the rest of his family.
“It was a heck of an emotional experience,” McLamore says.
And for his grandson? “Jacob thought it was no big deal.”
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