Brave Like Brett

After experiencing a brain bleed, Brett was fighting for his life when he arrived at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital January 25, 2021. He was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Brett’s white blood cell count was 865,000 and he was not expected to make it through the first night. He spent 19 days in the ICU at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN until he was stable enough to be transferred on February 13, 2021 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. After multiple relapses it was determined that a bone marrow transplant was necessary to save his life. Brett underwent radiation to prepare for the transplant that took place on August 13, 2021. His older brother, Bond, was his donor. Brett spent about 320 days in Memphis.

Brett continues to experience a number of complications due to the brain bleed, the amount and strength of chemotherapy he received and from the radiation. It is known that some of these side effects are likely to increase over the next few years. Due to the combination of Brett’s original brain bleed and his leukemia relapse in June of 2021, he has permanent vision loss. He has no vision in his left eye and very limited vision in his right. Brett has been working relentlessly at physical, occupational and speech therapies to improve his mobility and short-term memory deficits. He will continue to need regular follow-ups with urology and his retina specialist.  

Brett has made huge improvements over the last year and a half, but he still has a long way to go. He has been accepted to Tennessee School for the Blind for the fall of 2022 and therefore his family has made the decision to move to the Nashville area so that he can attend as a day student. Brett will be continuing follow-ups with St. Jude and will begin seeing some doctors at Vanderbilt for specific complications that have not resolved.