OCR Text |
Show Illness fought with love and laughter By GARY R. BLODGETf BOUNTIFUL Little Grant Anderson had just emerged from a 3-hour operation. With a shy grin he whispered to his parents, "I love you." This was only one of numerous operations that five-year-old Grant had undergone to save or prolong his life. "He's definitely a miracle, boy," said his proud mother, Lisa, as she watched Grant go through one of his twice-a-week physical therapy sessions at South Davis Community Commun-ity Hospital. "We know that he only has a short time to live. He's been labeled a terminal patient since he was only a few months old. But no one has told him that he's going to die soon, so he keeps fighting for fthis life." - Grant suffers from Hurlers Syndrome, Syn-drome, a rare disease which appears in only one of every 50,000 births. It's a genetic disease, but the odds are only one in 100,000 that the two parents will both be carriers of the disease, Lisa explained. ex-plained. Hurlers Syndrome causes the victim to have an enlarged head and bloated body. It's caused by an unnatural storage of carbohydrates, carbohy-drates, first in the joints and later in virtually all vital organs of the body. Grant is in the acute stage where his liver, spleen and lungs are badly affected. He has the breathing brea-thing capacity of only one lung and much of his normal intake of oxygen ox-ygen is through his diaphragm. "It would be like wearing a tight girdle," gir-dle," Lisa explained. As a result of the disease. Grant has suffered from numerous medical disorders that have required re-quired surgery. He has been treated tre-ated for pneumonia six times in the past year. Primary Children's Medical Center has become his second home. "Things will probably not ' change in the few months or years that he has to live," said Lisa. "Grant has his medical ups and downs and now he is on the downside. down-side. But as long as he keeps fighting, fight-ing, so will we." Fortunately, Grant is not in a lot of pain despite the severe illness mm r r GRANT ANDERSON and all its complications. In fact, he is a guiding light to others, especially espe-cially his parents. Lisa and her husband, Kelly, said they have grown through their experiences with Grant. But it hasn't been easy. Kelly is a registered reg-istered nurse and microbiologist. "It's been difficult on Kelly because be-cause he can do so much for others, but can't do anything for his own son," says Lisa. "Grant has gone through more trauma than I ever could and nothing gets him down." Because he is incapacitated for long periods of time, he has had to learn to walk "at least 10 times," according to his mother. This is one reason for his twice-a-week physical therapy sessions at South Davis Community Hospital. His therapist, Sharon A. Hunter, who is trained in neurodevelop-mental neurodevelop-mental treatment for children, said Grant has "made almost unbelievable unbeliev-able progress during the past two years." "I know that his progress has been encouraging, but I also know that he is a terminal child," said Lisa. "We want to do all that we can for him day-by-day to make his life more enjoyable." Grant has been under extensive treatment since he was a baby first with loving, parental treatment; treat-ment; then pre-school training for the handicapped; and now preparing prepar-ing for regular school (next year) for the severely handicapped at Monte Vista School in Fann-ington. Fann-ington. Grant probably has the mentality of a 3-year-old, understanding more than he can express. "His facial expressions let you know that everything is going to be alright," says Lisa. "He's a lovable lov-able child that enjoys the same things as other children." She said Grant enjoys watching television especially the news broadcasts and the weather with Mark Eubank. He also likes BYU football and The Price is Right. He loves to eat and doesn"t gain weight by over-indulging. His mother said he has four or five pancakes pan-cakes for breakfast and almost always al-ways eats three large meals and a couple of snacks a day. The recent Festival of Trees had a tree dedicated to Grant. It was purchased by his grandmother and donated to Grant by the Primary Medical Center's Cancer Unit. Still decorated, the tree stands as a tribute to Grant's parents and a youngster who won't give up the fight. |