aubrey gray

June 2020

Two months after turning two years old, our sweet, smart, happy Aubrey had some neurological changes that prompted a visit to her pediatrician. He felt it would be best for us to take her immediately to Seattle Children’s Hospital to have a neurology consult done. After several hours, many people evaluating her, and a battery of tests, we were admitted while we waited for results. Just after midnight on 2/19/19, the neurosurgery team came in to tell us that our sweet girl had a ping pong ball sized brain tumor. The afternoon of 2/19/19, she underwent a lengthy craniotomy for tumor resection. Pathology results of that resection were reported four days later as Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor, ATRT. ATRT is a rare and aggressive brain tumor that has a very poor prognosis, especially in relapse. Over the coming months, Aubrey would undergo high dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplant, followed by focal proton radiation. She had minimal setbacks and came out of treatment with no deficits. Her scan in October 2019 was clear and she had End of Therapy celebrations in November. Early February 2020, days before her scheduled quarterly scans, she again had neurological changes that raised red flags. Back to the hospital we went. She underwent the same battery of tests, to be told that she had relapsed with leptomeningeal spread. The spread was already significant, with regrowth in the original tumor bed, vast dispersion to other parts of the brain and fully encompassing her optic nerves, as well as spread to her spine. She underwent a laminectomy to remove tumor tissue from her spine to test for clinical trial matching. While waiting on results of that, Aubrey started having seizures and completely lost her vision. In March, she had an EVD (extra ventricular drain) placed to remove excess CSF that wasn’t being reabsorbed properly. That was later swapped out for a VP shunt a couple of days later. She was then started on her clinical trial med and readmitted for further seizures. These seizures progressed into respiratory distress which prompted her to be removed from her clinical trial med after only a few days on the drug. Once she was finally stable to return home in April, the seizures that were previously controlled, again returned two weeks after she was last discharged. We once again, took her to children’s for evaluation. We spent the bulk of that admission in PICU due to her respiratory distress which progressed into failure and now required intubation two different times. Upon the second intubation, we knew the course of her progression and that she wouldn’t make it. Aubrey again went into respiratory failure the evening of 5/9/2020, we made the decision to keep her comfortable beyond anything else. The afternoon of Mother’s Day 2020, we lost our beloved Aubrey. She is now resting peacefully with the Lord and our departed family. Aubrey was a vibrant, intelligent, and intuitive child who loved unconditionally. She is dearly missed by my husband, myself, and our younger daughter.