Darius Parsons fighting Leukaemia in Brisbane Children’s Hospital

At nearly five months old, most of baby Darius’ life has been spent in hospital receiving chemotherapy for a rare kind of leukaemia. Read more about his story here.

It was a trip to the Gladstone Hospital Emergency Department that saw the Parsons family’s lives turn upside down.

On November 29 last year, mum-of-three Sarah took her five-week-old baby Darius to the ED with what she thought was just a cold, but blood test results booked their ticket to Brisbane and that’s where they have been ever since.

Darius was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), rare in newborn babies.

ALL is a type of cancer in where the bone marrow makes to many lymphocytes, which are kinds of white blood cells.

The ED Doctor at Gladstone Hospital ran blood tests when he thought something wasn’t right.

“He had a sniffly nose so after I dropped the kids to school I took him to the ED, I thought he just had a cold,” she said.

“The young ED doctor we saw came out and he just thought something wasn’t right so he did a blood test and his white blood cells were all out of whack and abnormal.”

Sarah and Darius were flown straight to Brisbane to start treatment right away.

“He’s had chemo from the word go,” she said.

“He’s had three different chemos put through his body, one is one they use for adults and that’s what they started him with.

“It was a big shock, it didn’t really click for me until we were on the plane.”

Darius Parsons was diagnosed with Acute myeloid leukaemia after being cleared of ALL.

As well as chemotherapy treatments, Darius has had blood transfusions, been in ICU twice and received another diagnosis.

“We were in outpatients for about a week after he was cleared of ALL and his temperature started going up so I took him back to ED and his breathing started getting worse,” Sarah said.

“They started running more tests and then he was diagnosed with AML.”

AML stands for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and it’s more aggressive.

It’s is a type of blood cancer where an excess of immature white blood cells, called myeloblasts or leukaemic blasts, is made by the bone marrow.

That diagnosis started a cocktail of chemo treatments for 10 days straight earlier this month.

Despite all of the strong medications being put through his little body, Sarah said Darius was doing well with the treatment.

“They told us to expect hair loss, weight loss, vomiting and diarrhoea but he hasn’t really had any of that, but he did have some diarrhoea,” she said.

Darius with his mum Sarah and brothers Jamahl and Javan.

Darius’ illness has been a “rollercoaster” of emotion for the whole family.

His eldest brother Jamahl, 10, has been staying with his aunt in Maryborough so he can go to school.

His middle brother Javan has been doing prep at the Children’s Hospital School.

“Jamahl is doing really well here, we take him down on the school holidays to see his mum and brothers,” said Sarah’s sister Jillian.

“He does video calls with them every night to have that face to voice contact and they all have a good yarn.

“Javan has a good little bond with his mum and Darius but they do all miss being together.

“He (Javan) has been doing his prep at the hospital and then goes and sees his brother in the afternoon and at night.

“When things go downhill, they go downhill and it’s very stressful for the whole family … it’s heartbreaking knowing what he’s going through.”

On Thursday the family received some good news indicating Darius’ bone marrow was starting to heal.

Sarah said Darius’ treatment is a day by day thing because of the cancer being so rare.

As for what’s next for Darius in his treatment, Sarah said things were happening “day by day”.

“Ever since this started there’s been no forward plan because it’s so rare in babies, it’s been day by day,” she said.

“The bone marrow will be tested and sent to Sydney and we won’t really know anymore until after those results come back.”

Sarah said the hospital staff had been “amazing” and “very welcoming”.

“I take my hat off to them especially the ICU staff,” she said.

“And the young ED doctor in Gladstone … he’s moved on from that job now but he saved my baby’s life, if he didn’t do that blood test we wouldn’t have known.”

Sarah and her family thanked everyone who has helped them and donated to them so far.

If you would like to help the family by donating, visit their GoFundMe Page.