"Lights of Hope" Honored Hero

Stevie Ramos

   Stevie is a loving, talkative, strong willed child. He is the type of child that lights up a room with his smile.  Stevie enjoys arts & crafts as well as painting which he learned at the clinic where he now receives his chemotherapy.

    When Stevie was 21 months old he was bumped into and  fell at a local pizza parlor.  As a result of his fall, he fractured his right arm.  His mom remembers this moment as the beginning of Stevie's medical problems.  Stevie developed fevers for days at a time.  His parents brought him to the hospital and he was admitted for six days.  Stevie  received his first blood transfusion and a bone marrow and spinal tap were preformed to test for illness.  Stevie was released when the tests found only a virus. 

   One month later Stevie slipped at home in the kitchen and broke his femur.   Stevie was placed in a full body cast for seven weeks.  Unable to be the active child he always was, he was very unhappy.  Soon after the break, Stevie's fevers began again and he was admitted into the hospital again just days before his 2nd birthday.  Stevie was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Unfortunately his  birthday plans were put on hold due to chemotherapy and frequent doctor's visits.

    As a result of the full body cast Stevie had to learn how to walk all over again.  It took him several weeks but he never gave up.  Stevie did start to walk again.   But with yet another break on his right ankle, doctor's determined his body was very weak due Leukemia and the medications he was taking.

   " Stevie is a special boy to me and all who meet him" says his mother Patricia.  "He is and  always will be my solider fighting a battle we hope to someday win".