THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9512300128
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER BENNETT, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Like many youngsters, an 11-year-old Virginia Beach boy wished he could meet his favorite basketball player. Thanks to his sister and Make-A-Wish Foundation of Eastern Virginia, Todd Glass shook hands with Shaquille O'Neal on Christmas Day.
This year the Glass family spent the holiday in Orlando, Fla., where they watched the Orlando Magic edge the Houston Rockets, 92-90.
``I was just expecting to go to the game and meet him,'' said Todd. ``Instead I got three autographs, went to Universal Studios and a party, too.''
Todd is one of 400 children who have been granted their wishes by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Eastern Virginia, part of an organization formed nationally in 1980.
The nonprofit organization fulfills the wishes of selected children, aged 2 1/2 to 18 who have a life-threatening condition or terminal illness.
When asked what he wanted the most, Todd, who had been diagnosed with aplastic anemia, asked to meet Shaquille O'Neal, the 7-foot-2 center for the NBA's Orlando Magic. Before he ever dreamed that he would actually meet the basketball star, Todd had his hospital room decorated with posters of him. For chemotherapy, Todd had his hair shaved off. At the boy's request, his brother-in-law, Wesley Dove left some hair in the shape of number 32 (O'Neal's number) on the back of his head.
After years of physical challenges, medical treatments including more than 2,000 needle sticks and a lot of determination, Todd's chances of a bright future are very good because of an unselfish act by his sister.
Until he was 5, Todd was an average boy. But when he came home with black and blue marks over various parts of his body, his father, James, asked if he had been beaten up at school. He hadn't. Then his mother, Ruth, noticed that his ankles were bruised from the small elastic at the top of his socks. She knew something was wrong. She had seen something like it on a Charlie Brown special about leukemia. They went straight to the doctor, where Todd was tested for every blood disease possible. The diagnosis was aplastic anemia, a condition in which the bone marrow loses essential red and white blood cells, platelets and hemoglobin. Obvious effects could be reduced immunity as well as spontaneous bleeding.
``You don't think anything like this is going to happen to you,'' said Ruth Glass, Todd's mother. ``But as you go through it, you meet people worse off and are thankful.''
To save Todd's life, a bone marrow transplant was necessary. His mother, father and two sisters were tested to find bone marrow that would match Todd's. Although Todd bears a striking physical resemblance to his eldest sister, Amy Bays, 23, it was his other sister, Chrissy Ann Dove, 20, who had the perfect match to be a donor.
Instead of blood transfusions, doctors advised Todd's family to wait for the bone marrow transplant. Todd underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments in the meantime. In anticipation of the donation, Chrissy spent several years being extra careful not to harm herself before she had helped her brother. She and her husband also put off having children because of the surgery.
``I felt like everything was in my hands,'' she said. ``I knew I had something to do before I die.''
Indeed she did her part almost one year ago - Jan. 18, 1995. Doctors bore 60 holes into Dove's hips and extracted her bone marrow, which was then injected into Todd's heart. From there, it spread into his bone marrow and Todd's blood cell counts began to improve almost immediately, according to his mother. He is doing well to date.
Having been freed of illness for about a year, Todd was eager to go back to school after the holidays and tell his friends about meeting ``The Shaq'' and going to see a professional basketball game. In the meantime, Todd enjoys wearing his Orlando Magic jerseys, playing electronic basketball and watching the games on television with his dad, his brothers-in-law and even his mom now.
Something like this draws the family closer together, said Ruth Glass, ``and makes you realize you're not promised tomorrow.''
``So you treat each other right and enjoy each other everyday.''
Both of Todd's parents also credit his recovery to the many prayers of concerned friends and family members. This family means a lot to each other and it shows.
``It was a blessing to do it for my brother,'' said Dove, who stayed home from work for three weeks after surgery, then worked part-time for another two weeks. She endured more severe pain than Todd.
As for Todd, he was excited about meeting O'Neal and his trip, but he, too, knows who means the most to him. ``Really, my sister is the hero,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JENNIFER BENNETT
Todd Glass, who underwent a bone marrow transplant for aplastic
anemia, got his wish to meet 7-foot-2 Shaquille O'Neal.
by CNB