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While Teen Fights Leukemia, Friends Lend Helping Hand

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Lisa Black, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune

Dec. 23--In a familiar winter-break scene, the teenagers sprawled out on the floor to play video games and cards in a noisy get-together.

These Lake Zurich teens, however, were hanging out at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where they spent last Wednesday with their pal Patrick Freund, 15, during an eight-hour blood transfusion.

"It keeps me from being bored," he said, his friends chattering in the background.

Freund received four units of blood in a long procedure that he has had to repeat several times since he was diagnosed with leukemia last May.

"When he was first diagnosed, I was in here every day," said Scott Eschenbaum, 15, who has known Freund since kindergarten.

The two lacrosse teammates cut their hair mohawk-style after learning that Freund would lose most of his locks, Eschenbaum said. Freund still sports the hairstyle; Eschenbaum's has grown out.

Initially, Freund was diagnosed with asthma after having trouble breathing. Later, doctors found a large tumor on his lung, he said.

"He gets really mad at the nurses sometimes," Eschenbaum said. "That's his way of getting his anger out. We have to calm him down."

Jenna Smith, 16, said the first thing Freund said to her during a lunch at school was that he had cancer.

"I didn't believe him," she said.

In the past, Freund would stay up all night so he could sleep through the blood transfusions, said Sally Hageman, a hospital nurse who was delighted to see his friends there to distract him.

Smith said she was happy to hang out at the hospital during winter break, "for support and stuff."

"He has friends who care about him," she said.

lblack@tribune.com

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Copyright (c) 2005, Chicago Tribune

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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