Angel Luc F
May 31 1997 - April 5 2008
It is with sad sorrow that the family announced Luc's passing April 5th 2008 at 12:30 pm. He was surrounded by his family and loved ones. He was so loved by many and will be sadly missed. He touched many hearts in his shortend life. A life that ended before it began. He was hospitalized before Easter and was bleeding internally and doctors had their hands tied with little they could do to help him. The last ten days he was on continuous morphine drip that kept him as comfortable as possible.
Our deepest sympathies to Luc's family and friends. Please pray for his Mom and Dad and his brother Mathieu.
Luc’s body accepted the bone marrow and he was on his
way to recovery from his symptoms which included, nail deformity (progressive
nail dystrophy) since birth and since then it had progressed to a much more
serious illness. He had patches on his tongue (leukoplakia), skin pigmentation
and critically low platelets counts (pancytopenia). Luc's count was
been between 13,000 and 19,000. Extremely low, in November of
2000 when the family first found out that Luc was ill. One of his nails
fell off and blood test identified that his blood platelet were critically
low. The normal count range is between 150,000 to 450,000. After his bone
marrow transplant Luc had been holding his own. The transplant was a success,
but still remained anemic and his blood product counts still low compared
to the normal counts of a healthy child. Luc looked like he was going to
be out of the woods, but last year proved to be a bad year for Luc yet again.
In April 2005, Luc was airlifted to Toronto, for internal bleeding which lasted 3 weeks. They ran several types of tests including a capsule endoscopy (small camera that is inserted and travels through the stomach and the intestines taking 2 pictures every seconds as it runs its course, during 8 hours, then it comes out with the bowels a few days later). With all those tests done, the doctors didn’t see much, except for the whole stomach and bowel lining were red and irritated and inflamed, which is part of the Dyskeratosis Congenita, but at the moment don’t know how to treat it. They gave Luc some medication for bleeding ulcers while in the hospital, which they figure is what stopped the internal bleeding, but they figure that they just put a “bandaid” over the wound so to speak.
In November 2005, Luc started a cough and a high fever.
On Monday Dec 5th, he was brought in to see the doctor,
where he was diagnosed with the croup.
On the Tuesday, he was brought in to emerg as the
fever was still quite high. The doctor in the emerg said it was a pneumonia.
Gave him medication and a prescription to give Luc, and sent
them home.
On Thursday, Dec 8th, the fever was uncontrollable and Luc didn’t seem to be improving. Again he was taken in to emerg , where they kept him overnight and ran several tests.
On Dec 9th, they admitted Luc in to ICU, with a double lung pneumonia, then a few days later, he was AIRLIFTED to Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. Luc remained in hospital from December 14th, 2005 – January 26th, 2006. They ran several tests and did a lung biopsy on January 5th, and a few days later they diagnosed Luc with PULMONARY FIBROSIS. They said again this is part of the Dyskeratosis Congenita which he was originally diagnosed with.
There is apparently no cure for the Pulmonary Fibrosis other than getting a Lung transplant. At this time, Luc is at home, requiring oxygen 24/7 and is presently on Prednisone, to try to stop or at least slow down the spread of the Pulmonary fibrosis.
On January 5th, 2006, Luc also got a G-Tube inserted.
He was diagnosed as being chronically malnourished. He receives G-tube
feeding at night over 12 hours. While in Toronto Hockey players came
out to have their photo taken with Luc who is an avid fan and made him smile
and forget his troubles for a little while.
If you live in the Timmins area please support Luc by attending
dinner in his honor where proceeds will help him and his family.
Please let Luc know that you care by sending cards or
small gifts to the address below and they will be fore warded on to Luc and
his family.
Your child could
be part of the Smilesnhugs family and share their lives with the rest of
the world. Its just an email away. Not all children are featured on
our web pages. Many prefer to be private but still receive cards and gifts
from caring individuals. Please email us at smilesnhugs@smilesnhugs.com
