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Mostly Cloudy Community rallies around toddler battling rare cancer
Keith and Mariella Hansen’s seemingly routine day with their 3-year-old son, Erik, took a startling twist on a warm afternoon last April. Erik was in the yard of their Glen Cove home with his father, and was bitten by a few bugs. When Mariella brought him inside to apply some bug repellent, she found a lump on Erik’s upper left arm — a discovery that eventually led to the toddler’s diagnosis with myoepithelial carcinoma.
The rare cancer develops in myoepithelial cells in glands throughout the body, and is known for its aggression and its ability to spread. For the Hansens, the months unfolded with a series of surgeries on their son, each more complex than the last, as doctors worked to identify the disorder, and then to remove cancer cells and prevent them from spreading. On May 4, Erik was taken to a pediatric dermatologist. On June 6, he had surgery to remove the lump on his arm at a pediatric plastic surgeon’s office. On Mariella was at home with Erik on June 27 when she received the call confirming the devastating diagnosis.
“After I got off the phone, Erik comes up to me and says, ‘Mommy, don’t cry,’” she recounted. “That was his first response to me — hugging me.”
Erik underwent four more surgeries at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in July and August. After the third operation, cancer cells remained in his lymph node, leaving the potential for metastatic spread. At that point, Keith Hansen said, doctors gave the family four difficult treatment options: wait and see if the cancer cells would grow; remove a muscle from the toddler’s arm and replace it with a muscle from his back; chemotherapy and radiation; or amputation of the arm.
They chose what is called functional muscle transfer surgery, on Aug. 24 in which the latissimus dorsi muscle in the boy’s back was replaced in his tiny left arm, leaving a 12-inch scar running from his arm to the center of his back.
Erik began 12 weeks of chemotherapy on Sept. 28, undergoing 20 treatments at a facility in the Bronx. In November and December, he received 25 doses of radiation at New York Proton Center in Harlem, spending six days and five nights at the hospital. The couple carefully planned for the final treatment to end before Christmas.
Now they are focused on Erik’s recovery, with the next scans scheduled for Feb. 6.
“We might have clear scans — we’re gonna take every positive that we can grab — but I’m still not sleeping easy,” Keith Hansen said. “This is a cancer that was there microscopically.”
Amid the physical and emotional challenges, the family navigated financial strains. Keith took a leave of absence from his job at Citibank in June for 12 weeks, and Mariella, a pharmacist, has not worked since July. The couple say they’re doing whatever it takes to pay Erik’s medical bills — which have included nearly $200,000 in out-of-pocket expenses — by taking out personal loans and accumulating credit card debt.
“It was a big hit financially,” Mariella said. “But it was something that needed to be done, especially when you look at the radiation going in every single morning. Conventional medicine is surgery, chemo, radiation, and there’s a whole integrative approach to help with his healing journey to prevent recurrence. Healthy food is more expensive.”
At the suggestion of a relative, the couple established a GoFundMe campaign in September. As of press time, it had raised $35,323.
Despite their six-figure debt, the couple say they have been overwhelmed by the community support they’ve received from organizations like the Glen Cove Fire Department, the Junior Soccer League, the Anglers Club and Glen Cove Cares. Other community members have come to their home to lend a helping hand.
“A lot of Glen Cove who has heard our story has asked what they can do to help,” Keith said. “We love our friends, we know that they’re there, but we didn’t know they loved us this much.”
