Help The Hogan's

I’m setting up this page for one of my very closest friends, Todd Hogan, who I have known for many years.  Todd (TJ) and his wife, Mary (McGuire), have faced more in the last 18 months than a family should endure in a lifetime.  After much urging, they have finally agreed to reach out for help from their family, friends, and community.

Todd has suffered debilitating pain in his back and abdomen for over 5 years, along with extreme weight loss.  The pain took him to numerous doctor appointments and emergency room visits to no avail.  In September of 2014, TJ finally arrived at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ where he was diagnosed with Stage IV Lymphoma, a diagnosis that no one expected and an initial prognosis that promised very little time.  Fortunately, a biopsy refuted that diagnosis and in turn he was told that he had Stage IV Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors (a very rare type of Sarcoma). Todd and Mary were told they had to go to Sloan Kettering for treatment. 

After scheduling appointments at Sloan, the extended family planned a trip to Disney World, so that Todd and his father-in-law, Patrick McGuire, who was facing his own battle of asbestos exposure related Stage IV Lung Cancer, could have a magical trip with their children and grandchildren. The trip that was supposed to provide a lifetime of memories didn’t go exactly as planned. Mary’s mother suffered a life-threatening ruptured brain aneurysm within the first 2 hours of their visit to the Magic Kingdom.

Todd had appointments at Sloan Kettering, so the Hogan Family was forced to leave Florida uncertain of what would happen while Mary’s mother was being treated at the Florida Orlando Hospital.  The biopsies and additional scans at Sloan Kettering disclosed that the Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors should be considered benign in nature, at least for now, which was a temporary relief. Mary tried to find a doctor who would perform surgery, radiation, or even chemotherapy for Todd, at the same time traveling back and forth between NJ and Florida to be at her mother’s bedside, while she recovered, thankfully, from brain surgery with no residual damage.

Todd was left in constant agony and was prescribed narcotic medications to try to help the pain, as the doctors were reluctant to excise his tumors due to the high risk. The Hogan’s were told there is very little known about this rare condition except that it causes widespread debilitating pain. Additional appointments at Sloan Kettering revealed that TJ has many tumors around his liver; a golf ball sized one by his heart, some tumors by his diaphragm, and more tumors located around his spine. TJ stopped working in August of 2015 and is unable to find a position that would accommodate his deteriorating condition.  Sadly, on Christmas Day of 2015 Mary’s father succumbed to cancer.

While still grieving the passing of Mary’s father, TJ and Mary decided that something had to be done.  Todd looks as if he is withering away and experiences relentless pain.  Mary started to do more research, contacting doctors, and finally Sloan Kettering agreed to present his case to a multidisciplinary group of 50+ doctors to try and find a method to ease Todd’s pain and remove/kill at least some of these tumors.  Initially, Todd was scheduled to have a radical surgery that would take apart his chest wall, remove ribs, and the liver to permit the surgeons to excise some of the tumors that surround the liver and then reconstruct his chest and replace his liver.  The medical team, reluctant to perform this aggressive and high-risk surgery, devised a different plan, cryosurgery.  This procedure uses cryoprobes to insert liquid nitrogen and freeze the tumor(s) in hopes that they will die and not regenerate.   It is much less invasive and if the first surgery is successful, it may be used on tumors in other parts of Todd’s body. It is experimental and may not be covered by insurance.  It is a first step though, and TJ is willing to try anything.  The Sloan medical team scheduled the first procedure for 04/08/2016.  Although TJ and Mary know that this procedure cannot be used in the vicinity of Todd’s heart or spine, it is a step in the right direction.  More radical surgeries have not been ruled out for the future.

We are asking you to HELP THE HOGANS!