Baby Gino’s Battle with Cancer

On December 1st, 2024, Gino a two year old boy, woke up unexpectedly from a nap screaming, crying, coughing and not acting himself. Ashley and Brad decided to bring Gino to HSN. An xray was performed expecting pneumonia due to his symptoms however Gino had a collapsed lung. A chest tube was inserted to re-inflate the lung and more testing was undergoing…Gino was admitted to the Paediatric Unit and tested positive pneumonia and RSV. The xray showed Gino may have a cyst and the doctor decided to perform a CT. A 5cmx2cm cyst was found on Gino’s lung. They suspected he had an infected Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation (CPAM).

On December 7th, Gino was admitted to SickKids Hospital. The plan was to get rid of the infection (pneumonia) and proceed with surgery to remove the cyst (CPAM) sometime in January. On December 11th, Gino was transferred back to HSN for monitoring and discharged to go home on December 13th with a plan.

On January 1st, things took a turn and Gino became lethargic with shortness of breath. Ashley and Brad brought Gino back to the Hospital in Sudbury. Testing positive for Adnovirus, the doctors thought this was why Gino was feeling down again. An amazing Paediatrician thought there was more to it and ordered another CT. Gino had been on antibiotics for over a month now, so the expectation was that the cyst would be a lot smaller. Unfortunately, not the news anyone was expecting, the cyst had more than doubled. It measured 5cmx8.5.

On January 8th, Gino was flown back to SickKids with a plan to drain the cyst and surgery to come. On January 14th, a biopsy was completed on Gino’s cyst and the results are words a parent never wants to hear. Gino has been diagnosed with Pleuropulmunary Blastoma. A very rare aggressive lung cancer that typically affects children under the age of 3.

Gino will have a port put in the next few days (week of Jan 19th) with the expectation to start chemotherapy shortly thereafter with hopes to shrink the cancer and surgically remove the remaining cancer cells. They are currently staying at a hotel near SickKids and are on a wait list for Ronald McDonald House in Toronto.

Thank you for taking the time to read up on Ginos medical journey. Any donation to help them with financial stresses while Gino battles cancer in Toronto is immensely appreciated. If you would prefer to donate to the family directly Email transfers can also be made to Ashley. Please reach out to me for her email.

Gino may be small but his strength, courage and smile have been beyond measure! ❤️