- In December 2019, Ellie Keating noticed her son Mason was having trouble breathing at night
- She took him to the doctor who told her that her son had a viral infection
- Eventually, as the symptoms persisted, Mason was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Ellie Keating began to notice that something was wrong with her son in December 2019.
According to Daily mail, her son, Mason, had trouble breathing at night and had a constant high fever. Between January and March 2020, Keating, who lives in England, took her son to four appointments with her GP. Despite sweating at night, doctors diagnosed Mason with a viral infection.
Then, after Mason started vomiting and struggled to get up, Keating, 29, called 911 and he was rushed to hospital.
“As more and more symptoms appeared, it didn’t appear to be a typical viral infection,” Keating said. “Then he vomited and his poop looked like he’d swallowed tobacco; it was really thin. He wasn’t eating, he was eating well and he wasn’t drinking, which meant he didn’t have wet diapers. I know that’s the number one alarm when a child isn’t wet diapers.”
Eventually, Mason was fired. But just days later, Keating found herself at another hospital with Mason, where a chest X-ray and blood tests revealed she had T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
According to the Mayo Clinic, this type of cancer affects the blood and bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells are made.
“One of my main concerns was this cough; it was very, very uncomfortable,” Keating told the DM. – He started snoring at night, and he had never snored before.
She continued: “A cancer diagnosis didn’t even cross my mind as a possibility; I didn’t know the symptoms. When I was told Mason had cancer, the noise I made didn’t sound human at all. I bawled my eyes out and screamed. [Then] as I began to grasp the fact that he had cancer, I thought ‘he’s going to die’. I haven’t had a chance to research alternative therapies; I did not have time.”
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Ellie Keating and her son Mason.
Kennedy News and Media
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Mason underwent an intensive four-week regimen of chemotherapy and steroid treatment. However, despite the treatment, he died in July 2020. He was 3 years old.
“[On the day he died] there was no warning,” Keating said of the branch. “We were doing palm prints and foot prints with two nurses and I was showing them videos of him, and then all of a sudden it was just four big breaths and he was gone.”
“The nurse just grabbed me because I was going to the floor. She grabbed me and held me, and we were all sobbing in that room,” she added.
Keating, now a mother to three-year-old son Blake Ollis, said she is sharing her late son’s story to encourage people to “check” their children’s health and raise awareness of the symptoms of leukemia.
“When I saw things like that or read magazines and people’s stories, I always thought ‘that’s not going to happen to me,'” she said. “I think a lot of people think that way, especially with childhood cancer. Until it happens to you, it doesn’t cross your mind and I think that has to change.”
“My message to parents would be to stand your ground 100 percent and trust your gut because early diagnosis could save lives,” she continued. “I couldn’t save Mason, but if I can save one child’s life, I’ve done my part.”
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Source: HIS Education