Dawson's Story
written by dad Scott

Dawson was born healthy and progressed normally until his 11th month when he showed signs of sickness, vomiting, lethargy, and dehydration. After much searching, the correct diagnosis was obtained. "Malignant Brain Tumor". After 15 hours of surgery to remove the tumor and many subsequent procedures to prepare for chemotherapy, the type of tumor was revealed…"Rhabdoid Teratoma". This is one of the most lethal childhood tumors on record.

The physicians at Vanderbilt had given Dawson very little chance for survival. Past rates of survival of this tumor type are very slim (<2%). Because of this fact, we searched for all alternative treatments in conjunction/replacement of the standard chemotherapy protocol. We wanted to give him a chance.

Sondra and I had some interesting few months with Dawson before he passed. He had started to eat and drink by himself. He also had begun to talk and say words such as "TAPE", "CUP", and "CAR". His first word was "TAPE" because he enjoyed playing with it while we cared for his feeding tube. He had begun to sleep through the nights and was much less attached to "our hip" all the time. This was a much-needed miracle for Sondra and me! Dawson smiled all the time. He would wake up happy and loved to laugh.

He had an MRI a month before he passed and the results were thought to be encouraging, but there was a small abnormality in the absent tumor bed. After further analysis, we found that there had been a reoccurrence of tumor in our son. This was disheartening to us, but we still believed in his full healing.

We aggressively attacked his tumor with alternative therapies (both by IV and orally). Dawson struggled from November through Christmas and walked with the Lord on December 30th, 1999. We really felt for the last few months that he had one hand holding ours and one holding Jesus. The service was beautiful and David Colon sang the two songs that he had written for Dawson. 

We think about him everyday and now have been blessed by another son, Samuel Dawson K. He was born healthy and happy and hears about Dawson always. His older sister, Alyssa is the best big sister ever.
We thank you all for you prayers and we realize that our prayers were answered. Dawson has touched so many lives and his short presence here was so powerful. I only wish I could have half the impact he had!