t - New York Civil Liberties Union

290
Union-Endicott
YOUR
WORLD
I
It
Inspiration From a Young Cancer Patient
By Jessica Cohn
David Dingman-Grover was having •
powerful headaches. The doctors ~
-o
treating him found a tumor the size of ~
a grapefruit at the base af his skull.
The Virginia boy, 9, underwent treatment that
shrank the growth to something more like a
peach pit. The change was dramatic, but the
cure was not complete. The tumor was near the
main vessel that supplies blood to the brain.
For a while, David could not walk or eat. He
lost much of his eyesight. Yet he remained
upbeat. He playfully named his tumor Frank,
short for Frankenstein's monster. The horror
creature had scared him when he was younger.
This February, David will mark a year of health
and 12 months free of Frank. The Iû-year-old is
out of bed and has taken up karate. "I can stretch
a lot now," he tells CR1. "I can put my ankle
behind my head."
"This is awesome for us," says his dad,
Bryn Grover.
At this time last year, doctors planned to cut
into David's face and skull to remove the tumor
and test it. His parents were desperate to cover
the expenses. David's mom created a bumper
sticker that said "Frank Must Die" and posted it
on eBay in an attempt to raise funds.
That's when things turned for the better.
?
I
umor
National news outlets
picked up the story.
Donations flowed in.
Dr. Hrayr Shahinian,
of the Skull Base
Institute in Los Angeles,
examined David to
see whether his tumor
could be treated with
a newer, less invasive
method. The answer?
Yes, he could.
The doctor sent a
scope through David's
nose and pulled out most of the tumor. Then he
performed a biopsy, a test to see whether the
tumor was activé with cancer. "Frank is now dead
and gone and never to return," David announced
jokingly after his treatment.
"I guess humor is probably the best medicine
possible," says David's mom, Tiffini Dingman-
Grover. She recalls a time when they put cola in
David's urine sample to trick the nurses and make
them laugh. "Even at the gravest moments, we
always found something to laugh at."
David's story has been an inspiration. "This
kid lost his hair and a lot of weight, yet all of that
did not make him a bitter child. He still carried
himself with dignity. He had grace. He had
hope," says Shahinian. "A year later, there is the
tremendous sense of gratitude that I was able to
save a life, an important life, a young life." GID
26 January 2006 Current"Health 1