Name: Tyler
Diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia
Home state: Texas
Erica was scared when she and her son Tyler walked through the doors of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® for the first time. She didn’t know what to expect, but her nerves were soon calmed.
“A nurse said to me, ‘We’re family here,’” Erica recalled. “She said, ‘You don’t need to be afraid.’”
Tyler had a cancerous tumor in his chest and was immediately sent to the Intensive Care Unit at St. Jude, so doctors could begin treating him.
“My baby had an hour to live, and they (St. Jude) saved him. Before St. Jude, we went to three different hospitals, but no one was equipped to handle this,” said Erica.
Tyler completed his chemotherapy treatments in fall 2004. He now returns to St. Jude every few months for checkups.
