The words coming out of the doctor’s mouth were not making any sense.
Just days before, Christian King had been running around the soccer field with his friends, a happy, energetic 7-year-old boy with an infectious laugh.
Now, sitting in a hospital bed at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, his mother listened as doctors told her Christian had acute myeloid leukemia.
“All I could say was, ‘What do you mean? There’s no way he has leukemia. He was perfectly healthy,'” said Amanda Magner, Christian’s mother. “I was in a state of shock. It came out of nowhere.”
The following hours were a blur of medical jargon and treatment options, and for the past month, the Magner family has lived in the middle of a maelstrom. Christian faces another six to eight months of intensive chemotherapy, blood transfusions and other treatment, as his family struggles with medical bills and a lack of income.
“We just want them to know we give because God gave. We just want them to know we care,” said Josh Cadwell, lead minister for Victory Christian Church, which provided help for the family immediately after the diagnosis.
Without the generosity and compassion of the community — particularly those at the church — they don’t know what would happen to them.
“They pulled together as if we were their own family. I don’t know what I’d do without them, because right now, I’m still in a panic,” Magner said.
Turning 8 years old should be a time for celebration and fun.
The day was one that Christian had been looking forward to for weeks.
Instead, Christian spent Monday — his 8th birthday — in a hospital bed hooked to machines to monitor every aspect of his health. The chemotherapy treatment he started caused mucositis, an inflammation of his mouth and throat that has left him temporarily unable to speak.
It was their 19th day in the hospital.
“He was hoping to be home, but we can’t,” Magner said.
Magner’s nightmare started in early August, right around the time Christian was starting second grade at Creekside Elementary School. He complained to his mother that he wasn’t feel well He was constantly fatigued. Tests for COVID-19 came back negative. Visits to his doctor didn’t pinpoint a cause, and they thought it might be another virus, as it lingered for weeks.
But the situation didn’t improve.
“He was falling asleep in school, complaining his tummy ached,” Magner said.
Still, Christian was well enough to do much of the activities he had always loved. He was still going to school and playing soccer with Victory Christian Church.
On Sept. 7, Christian went to school like any other day. The family had enjoyed a nice Labor Day weekend, and Magner was hoping the illness had finally passed.
Instead, the school called saying Christian had vomited and needed to go home.
“At that point, I was sure something was off. We had been going on more than a month, so I was taking him to the doctor,” Magner said.
Christian’s doctor noted he had lost weight since the last time he’d gone to the doctor on Aug. 27. Blood analysis showed he was anemic, requiring a blood transfusion. Doctors instructed the family to go to Riley Hospital for Children, bringing along an overnight bag, as the procedure would require they stay the night.
Magner and Christian waited four hours in the emergency room as medical staff reviewed his records.
Finally, a doctor called them back. Christian had acute myeloid leukemia.
“They told me I brought him at the exact right time. It had not been going on for years, it just came about, though they don’t know how or why,” Magner said. “I’m still in a state of shock.”
Immediately, Christian was transferred to the pediatric hematology oncology floor at Riley Hospital for Children and admitted. Further blood work and a bone marrow biopsy confirmed the diagnosis.
Acute myeloid leukemia starts in the bone marrow, the soft inner part of certain bones, where new blood cells are made, but it can quickly move into the blood as well, according to the American Cancer Society. Most often, the disease develops from cells that would turn into white blood cells, and progresses at a rapid pace.
They met with Dr. Allison Yauncey, Dr. Alison Toback and the rest of Christian’s medical team, who would be in charge of his care. Together, they mapped out an aggressive approach to treating the leukemia.
“They said we needed to start chemotherapy right away. It was all a blur. It happened in the blink of the eye,” Magner said. “I was surrounded by people in a room going over treatment options.”
Before treatment could start, they hit a snag. Because the chemotherapy Christian would receive would effectively wipe out his entire immune system, the risk of infection was grave. Even something as simple as a cavity could lead to life-threatening complications.
So Christian had emergency dental surgery done to fill a pair of cavities. Chemotherapy started the next day.
The treatment plan calls for Christian to remain in the hospital through about Oct. 21, depending on how his blood cells rebound from the chemotherapy. They’ll get to spend a week at home, before going back to the hospital for another month. The process will continue that way into next year.
“We’re looking at about eight months here,” Magner said.
The past weeks have been stressful on a level that Magner had never experienced. Compounding it is a feeling of isolation at such a difficult time.
Magner and her children — Christian, as well as 15-year-old Kie Jewett and 6-year-old Alina King — had moved to Franklin from Florida just three years ago. They don’t have deep connections with many people in the community.
She had no idea where she could turn for help. Caring for Christian required she take a leave of absence from her two jobs, and because it’s her son, short-term disability would not cover the time off.
“It’s a hard thing, but you can’t leave your baby,” Magner said.
Magner started a GoFundMe page to help support the family through this tragedy, though she knows that has limited reach.
“We hoped that would help us with expenses and other things, but I know people are leery these days,” Magner said. “I know there are a lot of scams going around, but this is definitely a medical emergency we did not plan for.”
But people have rallied to help them. After learning about the diagnosis, the Victory Christian Church community pulled together and raised money to help the family with rent. At soccer games following the diagnosis, they passed around buckets to collect for medical bills. They also provided gift cards to help the family eat while they are staying at the hospital.
A group of parents put together care packages of toys and activities for Christian, as well as for his sister Alina.
“I tried to put myself in the situation of, what would we want to do if this was my child? We tried to step up and help however we could,” said Jon Lollar, soccer director for the sports program at Victory Christian Church. “We try to take care of our whole Victory family.”
The church has made community outreach a cornerstone of their congregation, providing funding and volunteers for everything from packing meals for the needy, to helping pay off lunch debt at county schools, to helping the Franklin Police Department buy a police dog.
“One of the things we’ve been talking about is, we want to be a church that if we ceased to exist, the community would miss us,” Cadwell said.
HOW TO HELP
Hope for Christian is a GoFundMe campaign set up to support Christian King and his family as he goes through treatment for acute myeloid leukemia.
To support the family, go to gofundme.com/f/4dj8zs-christianstrong
