Erin Roderick

Erin was diagnosed with a brain tumor called an Ependymoma when she was 10 months old. She had 3 surgeries to remove the tumor and completed 39 radiation treatments and multiple chemotherapies. Erin passed away on March 28, 2009.

Looking back, we had no idea how sick Erin was. It all began in mid April 2005. We took her to the pediatrician quite a few times and they told us she probably just had a virus that was going around and to give her a few days and she'd get better. That didn't happen and we ended up at the emergency room on May 15. They ran some general tests which all came back normal. Since Erin was so lethargic they decided to keep her overnight for observation. Around 11:00 that night she started vomiting continuously which really freaked me out. They did more tests and those came back clear, too. The next morning, the doctor told me that the only thing they hadn't done was an MRI of Erin's head to see if something there might be causing the problem. They transferred us to Children's Hospital by ambulance on May 16 for the MRI. When we arrived at her room, Erin had a seizure and once they stabilized her they took her right down for the MRI. That's when they told us she had a tumor and would need surgery as soon as possible. The first surgery was at 7:00 am the next day and lasted six hours.