Eathan Petralba’s healing journey

My name is Christina Bacalso and I’m fundraising for our nephew Eathan.

Beginning in October 2023, our nephew Eathan - 15 yrs old - was in and out of hospital several times with unexplained stomach pain and daily high fevers. The physicians he saw could not find anything wrong as his bloodwork did not show anything of concern. On November 5, 2023 Eathan collapsed at home and was found to have significant GI bleeding. He was rushed to Yorkton Regional Hospital by ambulance and was admitted. He stayed there for 5 days without any diagnosis. Doctors decided to transfer him to Regina General Hospital for further evaluation. Eathan remained in Regina for 18 days, underwent a battery of lab testing and medical imaging to search for what has been making him sick. The findings resulted in a major abdominal surgery where it was found that he had a transverse colon perforation. The segment of colon removed was sent for biopsy at this time. One week post surgery - Eathans health continued to decline. We watched him become weaker and weaker. His abdomen became swollen and he developed an infection. On the afternoon of November 28th - the biopsy results were back and the phone call every parent would never want came. Eathan was diagnosed with lymphoma. By that same evening - Eathan was airlifted to Jim Pattisons Children's Hospital in Saskatoon as his condition was not good. On November 29th, Eathan underwent a second major abdominal surgery as he had bowel sepsis and was in critical condition. He has now had three surgeries while in Saskatoon and was placed into an induced coma for 4 days in PICU to allow his body the opportunity to heal. On December 8th the Oncologist was able to share the final diagnosis with him and his family. Eathan has stage 2 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma NK/T-cell. This is a rare type of Lymphoma not typically found in children and the proposed treatment could last from 8 months to 1 year. His treatment will consist of aggressive chemotherapy, radiation as well as a stem cell /bone marrow transplant. In between his chemotherapy treatments where he will be required to be an in-patient, Eathan will have to go to Calgary to remove some stem cells and have them frozen. He will then return to Saskatoon to finish the rest of his treatments. The majority of treatments will be done in Saskatoon and some in Calgary as that is where the transplant procedure will take place.

Eathan's parents have been by his side and have been unable to work since his first hospital admission. Eathan needs care and needs a parent by his side as he starts this journey to try and beat this disease. He will be medically fragile and immunocomprimised throughout his treatment. We are asking for your assistance to help manage expenses while Eathan’s parents continue to care for him. Your donations will be used to help with expenses related to cancer treatment, travel to and from Calgary and also to and from Yorkton as Eathans little brother is only 5 years old and needs his parents too. Your donations will help Adrian and Jhunisa to be able to keep their home in Yorkton and to continue to survive financially day to day during this extremely difficult and devastating time.

Eathan is such an amazing kid.Any of you who know him know this. He is a good friend to everyone and is an obedient and respectful son to his parents. He is kind and already loved by all of the nurses and doctors because despite his struggles and challenges - he never complains and will always say yes with a smile. He has been so brave and tough. Eathan is very passionate about basketball and is normally a happy, fun-loving and prayerful young man. He wants so desperately to return to his normal life where he can get back to highschool and just be a kid again.

If you are unable to contribute a donation at this time, we ask that you please keep Eathan in your thoughts and continue to pray for the full recovery of our beautiful boy. We are forever grateful for your support.