Liam Craane - Honored Hero

2019 LLS’ Students of the Year Dutchess County Campaign

        In July 2016, at only five years old, Liam Craane, a Hudson Valley resident, was having trouble breathing one night at home.  Awaken from his sleep by a coughing fit, his airways became obstructed, he stopped breathing and was unresponsive.  After his father administered CPR, Liam regained consciousness as EMT’s arrived.  At the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital ER, he had another code blue and was forcefully intubated and sedated.

      A quick biopsy and scans found that a lymph node in his chest, between his trachea and his heart, had swelled to a gigantic size and was obstructing his airways.  The diagnosis was Acute T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma that was just starting to spread to his bone marrow.  Liam remained in a chemically induced coma with a respirator for two weeks, during which time, his family wondered if he had suffered any brain damage from the two episodes.

      Luckily, the chemotherapy and steroids began to shrink the tumorous lymph node and once Liam began to breathe on his own, he was transferred out of the ICU to a more comfortable setting.  For the next eight months, Liam would go in and out of the hospital, for weeks at a time, depending on his white blood cell counts and various levels of infection.  He missed out on Kindergarten, but thankfully his school district hired a tutor to home school him so that he wouldn’t fall behind academically.  After the first full year of treatment, Liam was finally spending more time at home than he was in the hospital.

       Currently, Liam is in second grade.  He is seven years old and is leading an active, normal young life.  He has joined the Cub Scouts, plays baseball and soccer but his passion is his creativity.  He loves to create new feats of engineering with his Legos, often ignoring designs depicted on the box.  Liam considers himself an artist and loves to draw freehand pictures of cars he copies from motoring magazines.

        His loving family has stuck by him, and through this ordeal, his mother, father, and his two sisters, Hayley and Leah, and of course, Jedi the dog, have given him hope, comfort, strength, and happiness.  Also, the love from his grandparents, cousins, and extended family made sure that Liam was never in his hospital room alone, ever. 

        In addition to the support of friends and family throughout his treatment, Liam was adopted by the varsity Field Hockey Team from John Jay High School in Hopewell Junction.  The Friends of Jaclyn who fostered this relationship, is a nationwide organization which matches child patients with a college or high school sports team.  Liam continues to be connected to current and even former players from the team, who have cheered and encouraged him throughout these trying years.  These friendships were (and still are) very important to Liam and his family and made him feel very much like a celebrity when he would attend their games.   The team often visited him when he was stuck in the hospital away from the world.

        If you met Liam today, you would never guess that he has spent 2 ½ years battling such a devastating illness, with the side effects from strong drugs and the cabin fever associated with being confined to a hospital room for long stints at a time.  Through it all, Liam has approached his condition with courage, strength, and fortitude.  Now that he is well, Liam is still a fighter and has expressed a strong desire to help other sick kids.  He is very excited to work with an organization like LLS to become the Students of the Year (SOY) Honored Hero and Spokesperson to help increase awareness and raise funds for cancer research and treatment within our community.  He is a symbol of inspiration and hope for us all!