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Cancer is the leading killer of children below the age of five. Fortunately, we have the resources to treat most cancers, but the treatment costs an unbelievable amount of money. Having one child with cancer can be extremely trying, but what if you had three? That's the tragic dilemma Angie Rush faced. Thanks to some miracles, her family was able to make it through...
Cancer Runs in the Family
Cancer is scary, expensive, and occurs in almost 40% of people. Usually, cancer metabolizes in the elderly, but increasingly alarming statistics have revealed that children are just as susceptible. Leukemia and brain cancers are the most popular cancers that are treated in children, but recent genetic science suggests that there may be a few more types of cancer to look out for.
From Parent to Child
Whether or not your child will get a specific type of cancer largely depends on your genetics. In some cases, certain types of cancer can only metabolize if you pass the gene that allows cancerous growth onto your child. In this particular instance, one Georgia woman passed a horrific gene onto not one, but all three of her children…
Retinoblastoma
Angie Rush was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma when she was just three-years-old. This particular form of cancer develops behind the retina and feeds off of the young, light-sensitive tissue during its development stage. This type of cancer is easily treatable but extremely difficult to prevent.
Growing Up, Moving Forward
Angie’s parents had great health insurance when she underwent this procedure so she never entered any medical debt from having this cancer. However, everything changed when Angie became an adult, got married and considered having a family. Upon visiting her doctor to talk about having children, her doctor warned her of the terrifying reality that she could potentially bestow onto her future child…
Flipping the Coin
The doctor told Angie that there was a 50% chance that she could pass on the retinoblastoma gene to her child. He presented her with a list of preventative measures but explained that this cancer was so rare that there was no way to determine whether they would work or not. Angie and her husband decided to accept the risks involved and they got pregnant with their first child.
Good News Incoming
Angie regularly visited the doctor during her pregnancy. She was healthy, the baby’s vitals were normal throughout, and it looked like their son wouldn’t be receiving the gene, which was a huge relief. Nine months later, Angie gave birth to Tristen, a healthy baby boy. However, only two years later, Tristen started to show signs of retinoblastoma…
Minor Sacrifices
Tristen developed acute Retinoblastoma, even after all the preventative measures and testing that Angie underwent. Fortunately, he reacted well to the treatment and walked away with his life, but lost vision in his right eye. Despite all the positives, Angie and her family were now trapped in thousands of dollars worth of medical debt due to back payments for her pregnancy and the treatment of her son’s cancer.
Funding the Family
Luckily, a local church was able to fundraise $12,000 for Angie and her family to recover from the incident. This donation helped fund a prosthetic eye for Tristen as well. Everything seemed to be going perfectly until Angie started to feel like something was off about her body. After visiting the doctor, she discovered that she was pregnant, again…
Another One...
The doctor confirmed that Angie was having another boy. He also stressed that this child had a slightly lower chance to develop Retinoblastoma due to medical developments that came about in the two years Angie spent with her firstborn. The family was elated. Angie and her husband had always wanted more than one child, and Tristen was excited to be a big brother.
The Truth Reveals Itself
In March of 2017, Angie’s second child, Caison, was born. As soon as Angie settled in with her newborn baby, a nervous-looking doctor walked into her hospital room and asked her husband to step out for a minute. He told her that he needed to take Caison for an evaluation because he believed that Caison was in the early stages of developing Retinoblastoma as well…
Diving Into Treatment
Caison immediately underwent the same treatment that his brother had to go through as soon as he was old enough to be put under anesthesia. For an entire year, doctors watched cancer develop behind his retina while Angie and her family desperately tried to fund his procedures. Unfortunately, they were unable to receive the same support that they had gotten the last time, and Angie was stuck with a $24,000 medical bill that she was unable to pay.
Three's a Crowd
The worst part about all this was that Angie had just discovered that she had become pregnant with a third child, another boy. The doctor advised against keeping the child since she was unable to afford his medical bills. Angie and her husband prayed that they wouldn’t have to undergo the same difficulty that they went through when Caison was born...
Here Comes Carter
Despite their numerous prayers and visits to the doctor, Angie gave birth to her third retinoblastoma-positive baby in the fall of 2019. This baby’s name was Carter, and he was in the worst shape of the three. Angie had to get a C-section during his birth, which skyrocketed her already enormous medical debt.
The Debt Piles Up
At this point, Angie owed the hospital close to $80,000. Her husband, a construction worker, was home recovering from an injury at the time, and Angie was unable to work because she was healing from her c-section. The family didn’t know what to do. They had three healthy sons, but they were trapped under seemingly insurmountable medical debt…
Facebook Famous
Angie and her husband turned to Facebook to ask for help. From there, their church shared her posts, urging anyone who would be willing to donate to a good cause to send them money for their medical bills. At a point, the post completely went viral, spreading like a wildfire over local and national news networks.
Live TV
Angie got interviewed by WXIA-TV, a station that was local to Marietta, Georgia, but broadcasted globally. Her interview was heartfelt and touching, but it wasn’t broadcast at prime time, leading the family to believe that their efforts had gone in vain. However, the next morning, the family got together to check the status of their Facebook fundraiser and was shocked by what they discovered…
Many Helping Hands
Their post had several thousand shares and was rapidly climbing. Angie got hundreds of friend requests and dozens of messages from donors. Not to mention, her family had raised thousands of dollars overnight.
Claiming the Cash
Angie and her family chose to halt the fundraiser until they could put it in a more standardized format. They got together that afternoon and decided that they were willing to accept $60,000 from charitable donors. They replaced their Facebook fundraiser with a GoFundMe page, turned their computer off, and went to bed...
Thanks Are in Order
When they woke up, the entire fundraiser was filled and then some. There was $65,000 sitting in Angie’s GoFundMe waiting to be used by the family. The family was offered another timeslot on WXIA-TV to thank all of their donors. This ended up leading to even more success...
Here's a Job
When the family went on the air, Angie immediately couldn’t handle herself emotionally. She was so overcome with gratitude from the helpful strangers that assisted her and her family in reconstructing their lives. All three of the boys were able to acquire high-quality prosthetic eyes, and Angie’s husband even used the platform to help find him some construction work…
The Journey Has Not Ended
Angie’s husband immediately got calls from a construction consigning agency nearby. He was brought on as a full-time employee and was offered family health insurance to help pay for his children’s further medical care. This was essential because these kid’s journeys were far from over…
Far From Over
Carter’s cancer started popping back up pretty much immediately after his procedure. Tristen and Caison didn’t have recurring issues with their cancers, but the constant checkups and preventative medication really racked up over time. Carter had to start doing chemotherapy, which ended up being a terrifying and expensive process for the family…
Taking the Chance
When Carter finished his rounds of chemotherapy, he was granted an opportunity to go under an experimental restorative eye surgery program. His parents were concerned at first, but if it meant their baby might be able to keep his vision, they were willing to try anything…
Shouldering More Debt
The surgery ended up being a success, but the expense was exorbitant. The family ended up needing to sell their home and they moved to a smaller place across town. Even the enormous donations that came before couldn’t pay for the surgery that wasn’t covered by Angie’s husband’s insurance…
Tough Decisions Ahead
The family was caught between a rock and a hard place, but they inevitably decided to put the debt off and have both of them go back to work. They campaigned locally to help them alleviate their costs, but they no longer accepted any donations from outside parties. They decided that they had taken enough money from nice people, and they needed to take matters into their own hands…
Only 4%
The family became strong advocates for pediatric cancer research. Tragically, only 4% of federal funding for cancer research goes to pediatric cancer. Additionally, only 40% of the federal funding goes towards studying cancer in general, the rest of the money either goes in the pockets of insurance company owners. In some cases, it’s allocated to pay hospital employees…
We Have the Resources...
Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality that we live in. The American healthcare system does not look out for children, nor do they look out for patients that are low-income and in debt. This is the reason why cancer is the leading cause of death in children, even when it’s so unbelievably preventable…
Something Needs to Change
The family was appalled by that fact, there had to be something that they could do about the standardized medicine system. If they had good insurance, they would have never had to worry about costs. But, since their insurance didn’t cover the nearly $90,000 procedure, they were going to be financially destroyed for possibly the rest of their lives…
Looking Out for the People
Angie and her family are actively campaigning for change. Their happy ending can only come when the federal government starts to standardize medical procedures through insurance companies. This would keep children like Carter out of the hospital for longer periods of time, and it would greatly increase the potential of life after an illness in children…
Cater's Journey is Far from Finished
At the end of the day, Carter got the help he needed. As of February 17th, 2020, he entered his third and (hopefully) final round of chemotherapy. The family is doing absolutely everything they can to get behind their son's treatment, but only time will tell about the status of his cancer. You can follow @CarterStrong on Instagram if you want to keep tabs on Angie, Carter, and the rest of the Rush family.