Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993 TAG: 9306090291
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
This time his mom, Jackie Fagan, didn't mind - because Dustin wasn't sick.
The pair dropped by Montgomery Regional Hospital on Tuesday to visit doctors and nurses they have befriended since Dustin was diagnosed in January 1991.
Dustin was declared cancer-free by doctors at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., in April, and Tuesday was the first time since September that the Fagans have visited Montgomery Regional.
"We just went to say hi to our friends," Jackie Fagan said. "It was a wonderful way to go to the hospital. Dustin was in that hospital at least once a month for a year and a half."
Jackie Fagan said she can hardly believe that the bone-marrow transplant Dustin had in December was successful in removing the cancer.
"It's just so wonderful that I still get chills every time I tell somebody about it," she said.
Now that Dustin seems to be on his way to recovery, Jackie Fagan is trying to help other families who have a child suffering from cancer.
She has filed suit against Medicaid, which wouldn't pay for Dustin's $250,000 operation because federal officials view it as experimental surgery.
Collection cans asking for donations were placed in businesses last year, and civic groups and friends held bake sales and auctions to raise the $75,000 down-payment needed for the surgery.
The suit filed in federal court in Richmond is asking the state Department of Medical Assistance Services, which administers Medicaid, to pay the remaining $154,000 of Dustin's bill.
"The reason we are doing this is so we can set a precedent and no other family will have to go through what we did," she said.
Neal Mynatt, a Nashville, Tenn., lawyer representing the Fagans on a contingency basis, said he's confident that the case can be won.
The trial is set for Sept. 23.
All along, doctors had high hopes for the transplant because Dustin was his own marrow donor. After a chemotherapy session last fall, some of his marrow was extracted, cleaned and frozen to be used for the operation later on.
Even though he's cancer-free now, Dustin's not completely in the clear.
The Fagans will return to Duke in July for more testing, and his mom said it will take five years before Dustin can be certain that the cancer won't return.
"If you've got it beat for that long, then you are pretty safe," she said.
Last month, Dustin and his family were treated to a free trip to Walt Disney World.
Jackie Fagan said the theme park picked up the tab for the family's hotel, food and tickets, and friends of the family paid for the rest of the trip.
The hot sun and long lines at the theme park were tough for Dustin to handle.
"It was a nice trip, but it wore him out," Jackie Fagan said. "We're all vacationed out."
Dustin, who hasn't been in school since April 1991, will spend the rest of the summer working with a teacher at home so he can enroll in fourth grade this fall.
by CNB