Story Photos
 Photo by Bill Wagner Kaleb Bachtold, 5, center, enlists help from brother Brandon, 9, and mother, Ingrid Eide, to draw a greeting card for a boy he met in a Portland hospital after Kaleb's brain surgery in August. Behind them, Phillip Bachtold watches his boys on a stop at Eide's Longview apartment last week. |
Beating the odds
Thursday, November 27, 2003 7:51 AM PST
By Eric Apalategui
Printable version
E-mail this articleIngrid Eide was just beginning her restaurant kitchen shift on Aug. 26 when she got a call from her ex-husband. Doctors had found a cancerous tumor the size of a lemon wrapped around the brainstem of their youngest son.
Two minutes later she was rushing to St. John Medical Center to be by 5-year-old Kaleb's side. Within two days, she and Phillip Bachtold were waiting through a grueling surgery in Portland.
Now, three months after the surgery, the Longview woman is still off work, caring for her son, scrambling to pay bills and still hoping to make the holidays special for Kaleb and 9-year-old Brandon.
"Right now, financially, I'm not doing very good," she said. "I don't like relying on other people for things, but I have no other choice."
The Daily News' 17th annual Neighbors in Need campaign, which kicks off today, is designed to help families such as Eide's. The newspaper sends 100 percent of readers' donations to the Salvation Army, which supplies qualifying families with food vouchers so they can put holiday meals on their tables. Since 1987, Neighbors in Need has raised nearly $560,000 for families in crisis.
Until late summer, Eide and her two boys wouldn't have been needy neighbors at all. She had worked the past three years as a cook at Country Folks Deli in downtown Longview. They live in a small but neat apartment on the Old West Side within walking distance of work, parks for the kids and Lower Columbia College, where she has attended classes toward her goal of becoming a teacher.
She has custody of the children but has help from the boys' father, Phillip Bachtold, who also lives in Longview and is a mechanic for Roto-Rooter Drain Service.
Eide, 27, grew up in Moses Lake, Wash., before moving to Longview five years ago. She has known poverty before but thought she'd escaped it.
"I was on assistance a long time ago, so I don't like being on it," she said last week. "I look forward to going back to school and back to work, when I can."
All of that is on hold as Kaleb makes a miraculous recovery. The Northlake Elementary School kindergartner, a huge fan of the "Star Wars" movies with a soft spot for other sick kids, is regaining his ability to walk and talk after the surgery. Tests have shown that his communication skills have improved well beyond pre-surgery levels, Eide said.
But the boy still must eat through a stomach tube, needs years of check-ups and may face further radiation treatment or chemotherapy if the cancer returns. Eide and her son's neurosurgeon say the expanding tumor may have contributed to Kaleb's need for special education as a preschooler.
"Looking back, a lot of things make sense, as far as his mental development," she said. "I can see the wheels turning in his brain. It's kind of nice."
Bachtold rushed Kaleb to the emergency room at St. John Medical Center on Aug. 26 after the boy clutched his head in agony. Doctors ordered a CAT scan that revealed the fast-growing, malignant tumor.
On Aug. 28, Dr. Nathan Selden and his pediatric neurosurgery team at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital spent 11 grueling hours scraping away the large tumor that had a stranglehold on Kaleb's brainstem, which connects the brain to the spinal cord.
"It was absolutely at the high end of difficulty and complexity," said Selden, who handles some of OHSU's toughest brain surgeries. "It had every characteristic that the neurosurgeon and oncologist hope not to see."
Kaleb's cancer, ependymoma, formed a tumor that was large, intricately entwined with the brainstem and pushing against the brain itself. The tumor also had an enormous blood supply, requiring blood transfusions totaling at least his body's full blood supply, Selden said.
Coming into surgery, Selden said Kaleb probably had less than the 50 percent chance of survival given to most patients with this type of cancer. But that was before the successful surgery, a 32-day barrage of radiation therapy, an encouraging first three months of recovery and an MRI scan this week that continued to show no signs of tumor.
"So now the odds kind of flip in his favor," said Selden, who said Kaleb now has a good chance of full recovery. "He's overcoming all the odds."
"It's given me a lot more respect for life and how short and serious it is," said Bachtold, also 27, who waited out the surgery with Eide.
Eide didn't have health insurance and still doesn't know how many of the tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills Washington's Medicaid program will cover. She also has gotten back on state assistance and will receive Social Security medical benefits for Kaleb.
She feels fortunate to have had a number of people help out. The Children's Cancer Fund, her mother and her boyfriend's family have helped out with some expenses, such as when her car needed $1,300 in repairs after breaking down the way to the first radiation session in Portland. Friends and coworkers have launched fund-raisers. Her younger sister, Karen Eide, lives with them and helps care for the boys.
And, she said, "Brandon's been such a good big brother. It's kind of nice to have a helper."
"Sometimes I helped her on his feeding (and) like if he needs help on his drawing or something," Brandon said. "He can't do the stuff that he used to do."
With mounting bills and little income, the family is scratching to get by as Christmas nears, Eide said. But she focuses more on Kaleb's health. Next week they'll meet with an oncologist, who will continue to monitor Kaleb for signs of cancer throughout his childhood.
"I'm a little nervous about that ... but I guess we've come this far," she said.
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