Twenty-three-year-old Kimberly John Alivio, who works as a fast-food cook, shows baby Jann’s X-ray results to CDN. The baby has lost all of his teeth and some of his facial bones due to cancer. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
It is said that every father who ever lived has a dream for his son.
But what happens to that dream when at a tender age of one that son suffers from a painful illness that could only be anybody’s nightmare?
Such is the story of 23-year-old Kimberly John Alivio and his one-year-old son, Jann Avou.
On Tuesday, Cebu Daily News landed on their doorsteps in the town of Consolacion, northern Cebu after seeing a group of young lawyers stage a walk for charity, exactly a week ago, in hopes of helping them.
CDN was ushered into a small wooden house in Barangay Poblacion Oriental, where we found Kimberly with his son seated on his lap.
From a tablet device, held by baby Jann’s frail hands, the nursery rhyme “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” was playing in the background.
Moments later, the baby shrieked as he began to feel more of his discomfort, and his tears started to well up.
Except to hear his pained and muffled “naaah!” we could barely see baby Jann’s tiny face mostly covered with a surgical mask that is meant for people much, much older than him.
Behind the mask, baby Jann no longer has teeth, which had all fallen within months.
His jaw is cracked at the center.
And somewhere in his gum is a gaping hole that simply refuses to close, spurting blood each time food, which he could no longer take, just happens to fall inside.
“Most of the time, we give him liquid food. If we give him rice, it often goes into the hole and he will start to bleed,” Kimberly John said of his son’s rare condition.
And because like all children, baby Jann craves for food, sometimes “when he eats solid food, he just uses his finger to push the food away from the hole,” said his father, who ironically works as a cook in a fast-food chain.
Baby Jann’s mother, Annalou, is a clerk, and she looks after his sister, four-year-old Keizha.
Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma
Baby Jann suffers from a rare type of cancer called embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma.
His diagnosis came only last July after his parents were told for several months by different doctors that what baby Jann had was simply canker sore.
According to cancer.org, sarcomas are cancers that develop from connective tissues in the body, such as muscles, fat, bones, joint linings of joints or blood vessels.
Baby Jann’s illness, rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), is a cancer made up of cells that normally develop into skeletal muscles.
“Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) usually affects children in their first five years of life, but it is the most common type of RMS at all ages,” cancer.org explains.
In the child’s case, a strong history of liver and bone cancer from his grandmother’s side makes it worse.
One-year-old Jann Alivio of riverside Consolacion town suffers from a rare type of cancer. As he turns two later this month on October 31, his family pleads for help in his medical expenses so that he can live a long pain-free life. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
The canker sore
“We thought it was just an ordinary canker sore. We went to the hospital, and we were given antibiotics for seven days,” recounted Kimberly John of the onset of the disease, which first reared its ugly head last February when sores began to form in baby Jann’s lower gums.
As the sores persisted, baby Jann’s parents took him to hospitals in Consolacion town and Mandaue City for more follow-up checkups, hoping to get their answers on why the sores had even worsened.
“We were told that it was still canker sore, but we were not convinced,” Kimberly John told CDN.
After several weeks, baby Jann’s lower teeth started to loosen, falling one after the other.
And then a hole formed in his gums, which made it very difficult for him to eat as the hole often bled.
An X-ray last July showed that the baby’s lower jaw had already cracked at the center, and he was losing some of his facial bones.
It was at the government-owned Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) where they learned that what baby Jann had was a form of cancer that could only be treated through costly chemotherapy.
Getting weaker
Months had passed since the VSMMC diagnosis, and baby Jann has become a lot weaker and skinnier.
“Before, he could play and run here. Now, he gets tired easily,” said his young dad.
Kimberly John managed to gather funds for the baby’s first chemo session in a private hospital in Cebu City last September; however, there is no telling where or how he
could pull out the resources to sustain the medical treatment needed by his son.
In September, baby Jann was confined at the private hospital for 14 days for developing an infection after his first chemotherapy.
For baby Jann’s hospitalization, his parents raked up a bill of P86,000, part of which was covered by the Philippine government–owned medical insurer, PhilHealth.
But that was only the beginning of baby Jann’s medical treatment as he is supposed to have more.
“We are in need of help. As parents, we will do our best to get help,” pleaded Kimberly John, whose appeal was heard by the Young Lawyers Association of Cebu (YLAC) through one of the family’s neighbors.
Last October 8, YLAC organized a charity walk for baby Jann from the town of Consolacion to the Mandaue City Hall.
The 15-km walk was able to raise P101,000 for the baby’s treatment.
His dream for his son
As a father, Kimberly John had a dream for his son.
“I just wanted him to play and experience a good childhood just like other kids,” he said.
As baby Jann celebrates his second birthday later this month on October 31, his family plans to celebrate his life — no matter what — with a cake and pancit (noodles).
Kimberly John’s birthday wish for his son is for the baby to have more help for the medical attention that he needs.
“My dream is for him to live. Without pain,” he said.
A very simple dream that seems far-fetched for now, but not impossible.