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Chance continues to battle

07/18/2014

Chance is headed into an MRI. They are checking his brain and praying no additional emergencies occur. Chance is still in a medically induced coma and still requires a ventilator to breathe. He continues to battle bleeding in his lungs. The medical team is working diligently to get him better. They are optimistic he will recover. Chance is on several medicines and requires 12 medical pumps. Pray as he is transported to the MRI procedure room. Blessed that the hospital has taken additional steps to ensure his safety.

Also- continue to pray for Chance's current staff and previous medical staff. SJ has remained in close contact with Chance's care. We find this comforting because they know him best. Pray for friends and family as they seek peace and clarity. Pray for our Rebels as they have formed personal bonds with Chance and seek understanding. #Pray for Chance's peers. #FightWithFaithand #neverloseheart

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Chance suffers cardiac arrest

07/17/2014

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On July 17, 2014 in the early hours of the morning, Chance went into cardiac arrest at Sloan Kettering Hospital. Thanks be to God, Chance's father, Jeff, was in the room with him at the time and heard Chance gasping for air. Jeff alerted the medical staff who then worked to revive Chance for 27 minutes before finally resuscitating him. He was placed on a ventilator and transferred to ICU. All prayers are needed for this sweet boy.

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Chance pioneering pediatric protocol in NYC

06/29/2014

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Chance is an 11-year-old, Ole Miss Rebel fan who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in February, 2013. His particular cancer is drastically complicated by a very rare sub-type called MLL rearrangement.

Chance relapsed in March, 2014, three days prior to his 11th birthday. He and his family returned to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where Chance was undergoing intense chemotherapy. His treatments were not working, and he was sent to Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City where he began pioneering a new protocol.

Chance is now in New York City at Sloan Kettering Hospital. He is undergoing the Dot1L molecular therapy which is designed to target his oncogene mutation MLL-AF04. Throughout their research, success rates have reached over 80% of full remission with this therapy. Chance is the first kid in history to receive this drug. He pioneered the pediatric protocol at 4:20 pm EST June 26, 2014.

The ideal for this treatment is to raise his cellular counts high enough to extract T-cells in order to engineer them to attack the cancer after being placed back into his body. This CAR T-cell will occur at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Chance will arrive at CHOP once his cancer has been stabilized for T-cell extraction at Sloan Kettering.

Currently, Chance's bone marrow is producing over 60% of present cancer growth. This saturation of cancer within the bone marrow caused blasts to spill-out into his peripheral blood stream (regular body system). This raises his WBC response and weakens the immune system. However, it appears that there are visible results of this new treatment. Unfortunately, it is too soon to definitively determine this. Common tradition of bone marrow testing forces Chance and his family to wait the twenty-eight days from the initial medication dose.

Chance's family and friends are praying for remission. If/when Chance reaches remission, he will immediately return to SJCRH for a bone marrow transplant. As always, his family's goal is to have Chance's sister donate healthy stem cells to help ultimately cure her brother.

Even though they are facing a long, grueling battle, Chance and his family remain steadfast in their faith!

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Chance continues to battle

Chance suffers cardiac arrest

Chance pioneering pediatric protocol in NYC

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