The Max Paul Global Integrative Pediatric Brain Tumor Program
Instead of being at home with his family and hanging out with friends like most teenagers, 13-year-old Max Paul has to live in the psychiatric ward at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where caregivers, teachers and therapists work with him every day.
Max was diagnosed in 2002 with craniopharyngioma, a rare brain tumor that develops at the front-base of the brain near the pituitary gland and optic nerves. Because this type of tumor attacks the pituitary area, it often causes serious neurological problems, especially involving visual impairment and compromised endocrine, or hormonal, function.
Five days after he was diagnosed, Max had brain surgery to remove the tumor. What's so devastating about brain tumors like these is that even after successful removal, some patients have long-term hormonal, visual and neurological problems making the possibility of a normal life unlikely. Today Max struggles with neurological, behavioral and optical problems that make it impossible for him to live at home with his family.
While Max's story is not a happy one, there is hope for the teenager and for children like him. That hope comes through The Max Paul Global Integrative Pediatric Brain Tumor Program at Cincinnati Children's. The program will provide an integrative team approach to the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumors. This team of physicians, social workers, neuropsychologists, psychologists, therapists and school reintegration specialists will be dedicated to treating the whole child, with the goal of returning children to their homes, schools, families and friends.
As difficult as brain tumors are on children, they can be just as hard on the patient's family. The team approach at Cincinnati Children's helps school personnel and families cope with the trauma of a brain tumor diagnosis by identifying the strengths that will guide them through the process of reintegration and rehabilitation.
The work has already begun with the recent arrival of Michelle Sadeh, PhD, an expert in this area from Schneider's Children's Hospital in Petach Tikvah, Israel. She is working closely with the Behavioral Medicine, Rehabilitation, Psychiatry and Hematology/Oncology departments at Cincinnati Children's, developing and creating this new program.
You can make a difference for children like Max. Your donations to The Max Paul Global Integrative Pediatric Brain Tumor Program will allow us to build the integrative program needed to help change the outcome for children with this devastating diagnosis and give them the quality of life they so richly deserve.
