Tucker Gowen

On March 23, 2012 our 17-year-old son Tucker was diagnosed with a rare form of AML leukemia. The news, as anyone with children could imagine, rocked our world. Our vibrant, strapping son who was a state swimmer and musician had gone into the doctor for an ear infection and the news we got instead shattered our world into a million pieces. (Sepsis and Cancer)

We suddenly found ourselves thrust into a foreign world of living in a hospital for an undetermined amount of time, trying to stay positive and upbeat while doctors focused on saving our son’s life. All while my four other children were living two hours away.

Three months later we were celebrating and shouting from the roof tops that he was Cancer Free and in remission. We had every doctor, nurse, child life specialist, parking attendant, cafeteria worker and security guard at Boston’s Children’s Hospital dancing around with us as we celebrated the amazing news. It was a wonderful day.

Two months after that, Tucker and I were having long conversations about what colleges he wanted to apply to. We were planning his homecoming party, celebrating the end of his last round of chemotherapy, and celebrating his 18th birthday in the hospital. We were filled with such hope and we could not wait to finally get him home and all be under one roof again.

One day after that, only one day later…our lives and hearts were shattered again. Tucker took a turn for the worst and, suddenly, 20 doctors were descending down upon us in our hospital room and rushing him to the ICU. He was going into Septic Shock.

None of us knew what was happening…it had all happened so quickly. Before we knew it he was being intubated and little did we realize that those were the last moments we would have had with him in a lucid state. My words to him that “Everything will be Ok” as they wheeled him back to surgery will haunt me forever.

Tucker fought with all he had and HAMMERED DOWN like no other, but the sepsis was just too much for his already weakened immune system to handle, and a month later… my husband, with our four children by our side, buried our beautiful boy.

The irony and cruelness in this situation was that our son died Cancer Free…he had beaten the leukemia….gone through the entire horrible process of fighting it, just to have sepsis sneak in and take his life. We had no idea about the dangers of sepsis and certainly never thought it would affect Tucker in his treatment. After all, he entered his Leukemia Battle in tip-top athletic shape from swimming. If anyone could handle chemotherapy it would be a strong and fit 17-year-old. Instead, our son went to the pediatrician for what we expected to be a 10-minute appointment for an ear infection…he never returned home again until the day his casket was driven back to our small town in Connecticut 6 1/2 months later. No child or family should ever have to endure that.

Thank you Sepsis Alliance for allowing us to be a voice in this battle and for bringing awareness of the dangers of sepsis to others.

Source: by Jennifer Gowen (Tucker's mother)