Yukon family waits and hopes while 7-week-old son receives chemo
Baby Emmett undergoing 18 weeks of chemotherapy for liver tumour
A Yukon family is going through some difficult times after their seven-week-old son was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Emmett is the son of Charlotte Francis and Michael Smith, the youngest of their four children.
Francis says he has a tumour in his liver and has begun an 18-week course of chemotherapy at the B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver. After that there may be surgery.
Francis is staying at the Ronald McDonald House next to the Children's Hospital, where families can stay while their children receive treatment.
"Every four hours he has nurses coming to check him, like do blood work and take his temperature, check his vital signs," Francis says.
She says she's been spending as much time with him as she's allowed.
"So he'll fall asleep in my arms and we'll just sit there and chill for a while. That's nice."
She says the staff at the Ronald McDonald House do a good job supporting the people staying there.
"It has lots of activities going on so you're not just sitting in your room going crazy," she said. "They want you to be doing stuff."
There's been fundraising for the family happening in Carcross, Yukon, and Fort McPherson, N.W.T., as well as on the gofundme website. Francis says she's very thankful for the financial support.