When Yehuda’s leg pain was diagnosed as Ewing sarcoma, his family brought him to Memorial Sloan Kettering for treatment, which included a 14-hour surgery.

Pediatric Sarcomas: Yehuda’s Story



The one thing we could think of,” Miriam remembers, “is a fall he had taken off the monkey bars in the neighborhood playground a number of days earlier.” Based on this and a spike in Yehuda's temperature, the pediatrician's initial diagnosis was transient synovitis of the hip, a condition in which the hip joint's inner lining, known as the synovium, becomes inflamed.

Trying to Find a Diagnosis


Further testing in the hospital's emergency department seemed to discount the possibility of a bacterial infection, with the emergency room doctors still suspecting transient synovitis. However, while not positive of the diagnosis and with Yehuda in increasing pain and running a fever, the doctors admitted Yehuda for observation and testing. Meanwhile, the pain had moved from Yehuda's upper leg down to his calf and foot. The pain was so bad that he couldn't walk and would barely let anyone touch his leg for an examination.

Not being satisfied with their explanations, I asked the doctor if it could be something more serious,” Mark says. “But he looked at me like I was nuts, saying with firmness 'This is a bone infection. We just don't know exactly where the infection is located.'

By the morning of the following day, Wednesday, as the discharge papers were being prepared, Yehuda's temperature spiked again. The pain was now so bad that he had to be placed on a morphine drip. On Thursday, doctors performed an MRI and an ultrasound of his hip joint and lower extremities. When both those screening exams proved inconclusive, the radiologist performed a CT scan.

“It's Bad. It's Real Bad.”

After another long hour's wait, the orthopaedist called with the news. Mark and Miriam will never forget his first words: “It's bad. It's real bad.” He went on to explain that the CT scans revealed a tumor that had penetrated Yehuda's spinal cord. It was located in the upper sacrum, which is the large triangular bone located between the two hip bones at the base of the spine.

The doctors suspected cancer and the oncologist on call at the hospital that day ordered a biopsy of the tumor for the following morning. At the same time, Mark's brother-in-law took a copy of the films to be reviewed by a neuroradiologist at NYU Medical Center.a

“If It's Cancer, We Want to be at Sloan Kettering”

Yehuda during treatment Yehuda during treatment




We had our initial consultation with Dr. Wexler, who was very conservative,” Mark recounts. “Until he had the results of all the tests, especially of the biopsy, which still needed to be done, he didn't want to assume it was cancer.

Wednesday Biopsy, Friday Diagnosis Confirmed


Yehuda Furman Yehuda Furman



Superb Prognosis Meets Rough Start of Treatment

Still, the Furmans never allowed themselves to be pessimistic about Yehuda's chance of survival. “It helped that Dr. Wexler told us that Yehuda had a 'superb' prognosis, meaning it was a treatable subtype of Ewing sarcoma that was caught much earlier than these type of tumors usually are — seven days versus the typical three to four months,” Mark says. “So they caught it early, before it had a chance to spread too far. And though the location was obviously not ideal for having to remove it, being near all those nerves, it did generate a lot of immediate pain, which gave us this early-warning signal.


Mark Furman, Yehuda’s Father

The Furmans split the days into shifts, with Miriam spending days with Yehuda at the hospital and Mark spending nights. The night after the first chemotherapy treatment was difficult. “He started vomiting, which alternated with uncontrollable diarrhea,” Mark says, wincing at the memory. “He couldn't walk, so I was carrying him back and forth from the bathroom. In the middle of all of this, he looked up at me and asked, 'Am I dying?' I told him no, that it was just his body trying to get rid of the chemo, which he was taking to kill the blob. That's how we referred to the cancer, as 'the blob.' That was the worst night. By the next day, the doctors and nurses figured out which combination of antinausea drugs would work for Yehuda.




Seven-Hour Surgery Becomes 14 Hours

The day of surgery, August 22, 2005, will forever be etched in the Furmans' minds. They were told that the surgery would most likely last about seven hours. Mark remembers the sight of Yehuda being wheeled into surgery, holding his beloved Nintendo Game Boy video game above his face. Unfortunately for the Furmans, who were waiting anxiously, the expected seven-hour surgery, which began at nine in the morning, turned into a 14-hour marathon procedure. “The nurses were good at giving us updates every two hours, but by five o'clock, the waiting area started to thin out and we began to worry,” Mark says. “By seven o'clock, we were one of the few families left.

Around ten o'clock, Dr. Boland came out to tell the Furmans that while the surgery had gone well, the tumor being removed with good margins, they were having some difficulty stopping the bleeding. At 11 o'clock, they received word that the bleeding had been stopped. When they spoke with Dr. Boland at 1:00 AM, he explained that the chemo had shrunk the tumor much more than he had initially expected. He said he had worked hard to preserve the S2 and L5 nerves, but to remove the entire tumor he had had to cut the S1 nerve. Still, he felt very positive about Yehuda's chances to maintain function.


After recovering from the marathon surgery, Yehuda was placed in a full lower-body cast to straighten his leg and to protect the structure at the base of the spine supporting the lower limbs. His legs were separated in the cast by a sawed-off broomstick. “He couldn't sit up,” Mark remembers. “He couldn't roll over. He couldn't do anything. It was rough.” Miriam agrees, “It was nuts, but we would use the broomstick as a handle. You'd put one arm beneath his back and one hand on the broomstick and that's how we would carry him. We'd have to go through doors sideways!



Leonard Wexler, Pediatric Oncologist

When asked if they have any advice for other families going through a similar cancer experience, the Furmans are realistic. “The good news is, when you're going through this hugely traumatic experience, it's all sort of a blur,” Mark recounts. “You're so caught up in the survival aspect of everything that you just do whatever needs to be done. We never really sat down and discussed how crazy everything we went through was until much later, when it was all over with. Which is how you survive it. Getting as much information as you possibly can also helps. As a parent, you have to be your child's best advocate.

And you need to go to a place with experts in treating your child's cancer,” Mark adds. “That's why we went to Memorial Sloan Kettering. Dr. Boland and Dr. Wexler saved our son's life. We will be forever indebted to them both.