Hansen Barrick Fund

Hansen Barrick is a high school senior at Tuscarora High School. He is an honor roll student, and starting left tackle for the Titans during both his junior and senior seasons. In addition to his accomplishments in the classroom, Hansen was recruited to play football by several colleges and held a full scholarship offer from East Carolina University. He was in the process of applying to colleges and deciding if he wanted to continue playing football at the college level. That all changed on January 21, 2010.

During the fall of 2009, Hansen began complaining of pain in his bones and joints which we all thought were just related to playing football. He suffered a few infections and the flu. Even when a severe asthmatic episode kept him from playing in the 2009 Maryland Crab Bowl, an all-star football game featuring high school seniors, we still chalked it all up to a hard season. We finally started to suspect something more was wrong when Hansen woke up on New Year's Eve morning complaining of severe back pain and troubled breathing. He was treated at the FMH E.R. for the pain. He came home and went to bed -- and slept through New Year's Eve and most of New Year's Day.

We followed up with our family physician, who referred us to a hematologist for more blood work and a bone marrow biopsy. The hematologist called on January 21, 2010 and told us that Hansen had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). We made contact with Johns Hopkins the following day, and had Hansen in the Pediatric E.R. that evening.

We are blessed that Dr. Pat Brown and one of his fellows, Dr. Calvin Lee, were working that evening. We've been told Dr. Brown is Johns Hopkins' childhood Leukemia expert, and we've been amazed at the care and treatment that Hansen has received. The treatment process will take up to 3 years, but we have a sense of peace and total confidence in Dr. Brown, Dr. Lee and their team.

Hansen was admitted, and began the Induction phase of his treatment. He was released from Johns Hopkins 11 days later to continue treatment from our home. He returned to Johns Hopkins for a 3-day stint due to steroid-induced hyperglycemia (which has since gone away). Hansen completed the Induction phase, and began the Consolidation phase of his treatment during the first week of March.

We've been amazed at the outpouring of community support for Hansen. One high school friend created a Facebook group  We Love Hansen Barrick (which currently has almost 1200 members!).

Another created Triple H Organization (Triple H stands for "Heart. Hope. Hansen.) to help raise funds to cover unexpected expenses related to Hansen's treatment and recovery.