Sometimes the people who suffer the most are the ones who do not deserve it, much like Californian boy Vinny Desautels.
It seems as if life is playing a cruel prank on this seven-year-old boy from Sacramento: not three years ago, he had grown his hair out until it reached past his shoulder, and then donated his golden locks to cancer survivors.
Instead of receiving gold stars, he received some terrible news: he had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
According to a CNN report, the boy’s parents thought at first that he was suffering from seasonal allergies; his right eye had puffed up.
But despite the administration of prescription eye drops and antihistamines, his condition worsened.
They started to really worry when Vinny’s hip swelled and started complaining of an aching knee.
A visit to the emergency room revealed a significant growth on his right hip. The next day his pediatrician sent the family to a hospital in Sacramento with a handwritten note.
“Blood tests, MRIs, and a CT scan revealed tumors on his hip and in the bone around his eye,” said the CNN report.
Vinny’s father Jason said, “We know it’s cancer, stage 4, because it spread in two different locations and it’s aggressive. Now we’re trying to figure out what we’re dealing with so we can come up with a plan.”
Photo credit: CNN
The report also said that Vinny’s family is waiting for the doctor’s confirmation that he is indeed afflicted with Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of tumor that forms in bone or soft tissue.
It has been a rough few weeks for the Desautels’. Being a blue-collar worker, Vinny’s mother loses income every time she misses a day at work. On top of that, she’s also six-months pregnant.
Jason said that he’s lucky he works for a small farm hardware business with flexible schedules, but admitted that Vinny’s condition will require him to do a lot of juggling to care for his two sons.
But like the ray of sunshine that he is, Vinny remains positive. He had already missed a week or so of school, but he would return to finish his end-of-year tests.
He plans to bring his copy of E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” to entertain him during treatments.
READ: 15 Cancer signs in children that you might be ignoring
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