When she was just over a year old, little Adele White developed noticeable weakness in her facial muscles that concerned her parents, Peter and Melissa White. PETER WHITE, from Colorado whom Melissa met when they were students at Pittsburg State University, is employed by Cox Communications. She is a stay-at-home mom. They have three other children, Simon, 8, Mattie, 4, and Cabrini, 6.
“We took her to a doctor and he told us it should clear up in a couple of weeks,” said her mother, who grew up as Melissa Naff in Humboldt and graduated from Humboldt High in 1997.
The condition didn’t improve. Six weeks later, toward the end of March, the Whites had their daughter checked by a neurologist. An MRI image revealed a mass on her brain.
The analysis was “it was a slow-growing benign tumor,” Melissa said.
Not completely satisfied, the Whites went a step further. They consulted a doctor in St. Louis who had doubts the tumor was either slow-growing or benign. Surgical exploration found the mass was an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor, an aggressive malignancy.
While treatment could have been done in St. Louis, the Whites opted for Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas, which is closer to their home in Wichita.
Adele, born Dec. 23, 2011, had her first round of week-long chemotherapy starting on May 24.
“She had so many tubes” attached to her body, ports for cancer-fighting drugs as well as others to protect her small body from the medications’ effects, her mother recalled.
A second round of chemotherapy, again lasting a week, began on June 29.
Some tests were to have been done in Kansas City today and another MRI is scheduled next week, which will give the Whites a good idea about the state of Adeline’s recovery and what course should be taken next.
“There is a possibility of surgery, but it’s more likely there will be more chemotherapy,” Melissa said.
Anytime such a severe illness arises, expenses quickly mount. Transportation and lodging alone eat quickly into a family’s resources.
To help financially, several of Melissa’s friends from Humboldt and the area will have a fundraiser Saturday afternoon and evening at Humboldt High School. Doors open at 4 o’clock. Pulled pork dinners, for a free-will donation, will be served at 5 and an auction begins at 6:30.
Among auction items are a Henry H001 rifle, B&W Tri Ball, K-State football tickets, original designs by Roger Baker Woodworking and Wehlage Iron Works, a load of gravel and a helicopter flight. In addition, there will be drawings for baskets and a Phoenix HP 22-caliber handgun, with tickets $5 each.
Contributions also are being accepted at any Community National Bank, including Humboldt’s and Iola’s.
For more information call Bill Hess, 620-473-2556, or Cindy Jaro, 520-431-3839.
Organizers stressed all proceeds would go directly to Adele and her family.
Baby battling malignant tumor
