80 | www. Char l es tonPhys i c i ans . com | www.Hea l thL i nksChar l es ton . com The Clark family was enjoying life in their new Mount Pleasant home after moving in 2016. Eli Clark “seemed to be doing really well” in the wake of his kidney transplant, according to his mother, Stephanie Clark. But during the summer of 2017, things took an unexpected and dire turn. Stephanie was at home one June afternoon getting ready for work and for a visit with her mom. Suddenly, “Eli could not move one leg, he couldn’t stand and his arm started involuntarily twitching,” Stephanie recalled. She still had Dr. Katherine Twombley’s phone number readily available, so she didn’t hesitate to call the trusted physician and then her husband, Trey. Dr. Twombley told Stephanie and Trey that if the symptoms persisted to take him to the emergency room. And when the symptoms didn’t abate, the “90-mile-an-hour, thankful it’s not rush hour” race to the hospital began. “As I was going over the Ravenel, his arm twitched again and he was screaming, ‘Mommy, help me!’” Stephanie said, her throat catching. While in the ER, Eli had a complete seizure in his mother’s arms; the brain-attack team gave him an IV of medicine. Minutes later, Eli started screaming and wailing. An adverse reaction to the medication, the team surmised. One entire side of Eli’s body went limp. Stephanie, Trey and Eli were escorted swiftly to the pediatric intensive care unit, where Eli was given an EEG test and, the next day, a sedation MRI – then a biopsy. The diagnosis was devastating: Eli had a brain tumor – specifically, a B cell post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. All transplant patients are at risk of getting it, but no one knows why. Thankfully, Dr. Twombley was no stranger to PTLD, Stephanie explained. “She’d done the research, and she knew what it was before the biopsy,” Stephanie added. “It’s a very rare lymphoma. Most patients end up dying. Eli’s was only on his brain.” While some families might have crumpled at this news, the Clarks courageously soldiered on, knowing their son had faced A Unique Case: EVERY MOMENT MATTERS by Denise K. James ELI CLARK’S STORY - PART 2 Eli, age 13.
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