William Snyder is a vibrant 12-year-old. He loves baseball, football, swimming, riding his bike and playing video games. He laughs heartily, his gigantic sense of humor shining through.
That he is still alive today is a miracle of sorts — a story that merits telling during Hanukkah, when a tiny bit of oil miraculously kept the menorah lit for eight days.
Ron Snyder recalled that when his son William was around 7 months old, he and his wife, Lori, felt “something didn’t seem right” with their firstborn son, who was experiencing twitching, severe night sweats and seizures. The Baltimore family brought him to a doctor who ran some minor tests and signed him off as fine. They brought him to a hospital, where the boy was turned away.
By age 1, when William showed no interest in walking, his parents tried again.
“Several doctors told us he would be fine; our parental instincts told us otherwise,” Snyder said.
On Labor Day 2004, at the age of 15 months, William was diagnosed by a Jewish doctor at Sinai Hospital in northwest Baltimore with a large tumor that pressed against his brain stem.
“We felt helpless, confused, devastated and scared that we were going to lose William long before his life had really begun,” Snyder said. “They gave him less than a 10 percent chance to live. At one point a doctor said, ‘Take lots of pictures. At least you’ll have the memories.’ ”
William was emergency-transported to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he underwent a 12-hour surgery to remove the tumor. While 90 percent of the tumor was removed successfully, the surgery caused his frail body to suffer from a stroke, which threw him into a weeklong coma. An infection delayed chemotherapy. That delay led to the cancer’s return — not only in his brain, but down through his spine.
“It looked like someone had poured salt and sugar all over — you could see cancer specs all over,” Snyder said. “We were debating whether to do treatment. Finally, the doctors agreed to do one round of chemo. They said that if nothing happened, they would have to make tough decisions about sending him to hospice. No one was hopeful.”
When William went in for the chemo treatment, Synder said he went down to the hospital’s sanctuary and prayed. When he returned to William, the boy opened his eyes, had a little color back and moved his mouth a little.
The doctors ran another MRI. While the family waited for the results, Snyder again returned to the sanctuary “and prayed some more. There was nothing else to do.”
When he came back to meet with the doctor, his prayers were answered. “The cancer is gone,” he recalled one doctor saying. “The cancer is gone!”
“All the spots on William’s spine were gone,” Snyder said. “One round of chemo and it was gone. There was a little spot left on the left brain and [a] second surgery removed it. He has been clean ever since. He has been clean for almost 11 years. It was a miracle.”
William still went through more than 12 months of additional treatments to ensure he stayed cancer-free, including numerous blood and platelet transfusions. The child’s only adventure that year was taking a ride around the hospital floor in a wagon with an IV pole attached.
He suffered severe skin burns from the additional chemo: He is deaf in one ear, hard of hearing in the other, nearly blind, and has several learning disabilities.
“Still, we know what a miracle it is for him to be alive today,” Snyder said. “Many of William’s friends at the hospital did not make it. … He is a true warrior.”
Today, he is a corky kid who teases his 9-year-old twin sisters and pets his dog, Asha, with an infectious giggle.
And to this day, every time William has a brain scan — about every four to six months — his father goes down to the hospital sanctuary and prays. “I daven right before he scans; I believe it,” Snyder said.
“Of course there was medical science — I believe in science, too. But I don’t believe William could have pulled out without faith — without God’s hand.”