East Greenbush Family Reflects on Melodies Center Experience
In 2022, just days before Christmas, Evin Donohue, of East Greenbush, was sicker than he ever felt before.
“I felt confused and didn’t know what was happening,” said Evin.
“That December, our whole family had been sick,” said Evin’s mom Kristin. “Doctors thought Evin had a sinus infection and then a stomach virus, but he wasn’t getting better.”
Kristin remembers Evin was very pale and couldn’t get off the couch.
“I said ‘Evin, how do you feel today?’ and he said ‘Mom, I feel full, like I have no more room left in my body’,” said Kristin. “I remember locking myself in my bathroom and crying. I called my husband, Ed, and said ‘something is really wrong with Evin. I think we need to take him to the emergency room’.”
Family friends in the medical field also urged the family to go to the Massry Family Children’s Emergency Center at the Bernard & Millie Duker Children’s Hospital immediately.
“Ed and I took turns carrying Evin up the emergency room ramp, in the snow,” she said.
“They started doing tests, and we had a feeling it wasn’t good,” said Ed. “It felt like getting hit with a baseball bat.”
Evin’s white blood cell count was so high that he was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Evin had a mass of white blood cells over his heart, his organs were enlarged, he had a brain bleed, he was sweating, and he was in pain.
“At that point, he was fighting for his life,” said Kristin.
On Christmas Eve morning, Evin was diagnosed with high-risk, T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“Because he was in such a critical state and his counts were so high, they had to begin chemotherapy immediately,” said Kristin, “They also did a procedure where they took his blood out of his body and then put it back in, to try to draw off some of the white blood cells to get that count to go down.”
Evin was in the PICU for a week, before moving to the children’s hospital inpatient unit where he stayed for 28 days.
Pediatric oncologist Lauren Weintraub, MD, assured the Donohues that Evin could be treated at the Melodies Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Albany Medical Center. Ed and Kristin said they were comforted by Dr. Weintraub’s presence and confidence.
“Evin owned that diagnosis, but as a family, we were going to carry it,” said Kristin, “We knew with having four other children at home we needed to have all of them close by, and we needed to do it together. So that’s how we chose to do treatment at Melodies.”
“We knew the Melodies Center was there, but we didn’t grasp what they were capable of doing and how well they do their job, until we had to go through it,” said Ed.
The Melodies Center team became an important part of their lives. Evin says the team made him feel calm, and like a normal kid. His favorite memories include having nerf gun fights or playing practical jokes with the doctors and nurses and playing catch with members of the Premiere Lacrosse League when they visited the children’s hospital.
“They gave me a lacrosse stick and we passed back and forth,” said Evin. “It took my mind off everything, and I was able to get out of bed and do something fun.”
Today, Evin, 13, is doing well. He’s in the 7th grade at La Salle Institute and he’s trying to get stronger so he can get back into lacrosse and hockey.
“Evin’s prognosis is very good. He was able to complete a drug to decrease the chances of the cancer coming back,” said Kristin. “He’s just getting back to being himself.”
Evin says because of his experience he hopes to work in the medical field when he grows up, so he can help children going through the same thing he did.
“This experience changed me and my family a lot,” said Evin, “It made me more grateful for everything around me.”