PHOENIX — Giving Tuesday is coming and 12News is partnering with Phoenix Children’s Hospital to help doctors and nurses continue to provide life-giving care through your generous donations.
Those donations have changed the life of one young man named Christian Lopez.
Christian is visually impaired.
But that is the least of his adjectives.
A swimmer, a drummer and a baseball player are much more descriptive of who 10-year-old Christian really is.
“I think I’ve done pretty good,” he said with a wry smile.
“He loves swimming,” Brenda Lopez, Christian's mother said. “He's tried sports. He's played baseball. Yeah, he just doesn't get scared of things; he likes to try things at least once.”
When Christian was 4 years old, his teacher noticed he was having trouble with simple tasks, like tracing pictures. Concerned, his parents brought him to a doctor who sent him to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. It seemed Christian had tumors growing on his brain. One was pressing on his optical nerve.
Treatment for the complex tumors resulted in Christian losing his vision – near total blindness.
“Unfortunately, he does still have tumors in his brain,” Brenda explained. “Due to the type of tumor, there are different parts of his brain that have tumor sites.”
But the treatment showed a measure of success. According to Brenda, nearly all the tumors have shrunk to being barely visible.
“I don't struggle. I really don't care that I don't have my vision because I can do everything the same.” Christian said.
Phoenix Children’s has played a crucial role in Christian’s treatment and recovery. Combining oncologists, neurologists and ophthalmologists in the 10-year-old’s treatment plan is standard care at PCH.
“Phoenix Children's has been amazing. I don't think we would have been able to get through this as well as we have all these years. I mean, they're our second home.” Brenda said.
Though he’s not out of the woods, yet. The care that Christian has received at PCH allows him to focus on more important matters, like learning new songs on the drums.
“Every component of the organization is amazing to their patients, and it's such a blessing for us to have in our lives and I'm very grateful for that.” said Brenda.
On Giving Tuesday, Nov. 29th, your donation will be triple-matched by the Arizona Cardinals. Help save a life today by heading to GivetoPCH.org.
