Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993 TAG: 9311100106
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
However, three nationally syndicated radio talk-show hosts are coming from New York to Roanoke this month to help raise money for a bone marrow transplant for Jonathan. Barry Farber, Gene Burns and clinical psychologist Joy Browne, whose shows air daily on Roanoke news-talk station WFIR (960 AM), will appear at a forum at Cave Spring High School on Nov. 20.
The 20-month-old boy has a rare malignant brain tumor, and is being treated with chemotherapy. The massive doses he's receiving are wiping out his bone marrow's ability to produce white blood cells that fight infection and the red blood cells that carry oxygen, according to his physician, Laurence Kleiner. That's why the marrow transplant is needed.
The Lawsons' health insurance pays for 80 percent of Jonathan's chemotherapy, but won't pay for the bone marrow transplant because it's considered experimental.
The Lawsons need a minimum of $150,000 for the operation, to be done at Duke Medical Center. The entire procedure could cost as much as $300,000.
The Lawsons don't have that kind of money. Tim Lawson, Jonathan's father, is a painter for Beautiful Estates Painting Co. Jonathan's mother, Jeannie Lawson, works for the Postal Service.
Tim Lawson called WFIR to ask for help raising money. Operations manager Bill Bratton decided to call Farber, who put the family on his show. Bratton continued making calls, and got Burns and Browne involved.
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No one seems to know why Jonathan's tumor formed. Beverly Hockenberger, a physician's assistant at Duke who has worked with Jonathan, says about 1,500 children get brain tumors each year. The type of tumor Jonathan has is extremely rare, she said.
Kleiner, who specializes in pediatric neurosurgery, says he's treated eight to 10 children with tumors this year. Some cases could be related to pollutants while others may be genetic, but there's no way of telling for sure, he said.
Because he can't fight off infections, Jonathan's visitors must wear surgical masks. Recently, his 10-year-old sister, Cristy, had to be confined to her bedroom when she got a cold.
When her brother became ill, "we told her flat out about the brain tumor. `Your brother might die,' " Tim Lawson said he told Cristy. "But God is there for her, and her family is there for her."
Tim Lawson doesn't think about the possibility of his son's death. "It's one day at a time."
Kleiner says Jonathan's chances are minimal.
The tumor is not responding well to the chemotherapy. If it continues to grow, a transplant won't change Jonathan's chances.
"There's no guarantee even if we get the money, but what are the chances if we don't?" Farber said.
Farber said he couldn't turn down the invitation. It's not every day he's invited to help with something "this powerful or poignant," he said.
Browne will be the host for the Nov. 20 forum, where the audience can ask Farber and Burns - whose radio shows are politically driven - questions about problems in health care and other issues.
Both Farber and Burns said they don't believe President Clinton's health-care plan would make a difference for Jonathan.
Farber said his interpretation of the plan is that a committee would probably decide that the money spent on Jonathan could be more productive going to projects with a greater chance of success.
Burns is not a big fan of national health care. In some cases government assistance works, he said, but "it's an enormous bureaucracy and costs us a fortune."
"The government has become our first resort, which destroys our community sense and initiative," he said.
"If we all extended ourselves a little more in our own communities," such as the volunteer effort to help Jonathan, Burns said, then people would become more self-sufficient and responsive to the country's needs as a whole.
The fund-raising efforts are wonderful, Kleiner said, but "I don't say this easily . . . I'm not sure that everything we're going to do is going to make a big difference . . . . I wish we could say the efforts are really worthwhile."
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Jonathan appeared to be a normal baby. He weighed slightly more than 10 pounds when he was born March 8, 1992. His only problems at first seemed to be colic and ear infections.
He cried a lot for his first three months of life, and the doctors said he was a collicky child.
Last February, he vomited for almost an entire week. His parents and his doctor thought it was a stomach virus, and it seemed to clear up.
In April, three days after the Lawsons moved into their new house in Roanoke County, Jonathan bumped his eye. There was no cut, and he seemed fine. But later he became sick again.
"I knew something wasn't right" because he was lethargic, said his mother, Jeannie Lawson. Then he had a seizure. His parents rushed him to the emergency room.
They remembered he had bumped his head and mentioned that to the medical staff.
"They did a CAT scan and found the tumor," Tim Lawson said.
Jonathan underwent surgery to remove most of the tumor and received chemotherapy, but the tumor grew back to its original size. The doctors changed the chemotherapy, and the tumor shrank slightly. After a second switch in chemotherapy, doctors have suggested more surgery. There must be as little left of the tumor as possible for the chemotherapy to be effective, Kleiner said.
Jonathan visits Duke Medical Center once a month for three to five days of chemotherapy. Each hospital visit costs the Lawsons $250.
The community is rallying for Jonathan. Jars have been distributed throughout the Roanoke and New River valleys to collect money; his sister's school, North Cross, has monthly fund-raisers; postal workers raised $1,700 in two days; and local radio stations including WWWR (910 AM) are helping.
Tim Lawson said he's not surprised by the response. There's more good in people in the community than you hear about, he said.
Tickets for the event at Cave Spring, which begins at 7 p.m., can be purchased for $10 at WFIR's studios on Hounds Chase Lane off Franklin Road or at the information center at Valley View Mall. All proceeds will go to the Jonathan Lawson Fund. For more information, call WFIR at 345-1511.
by CNB