SickKids VS Brain Injury
When a child suffers a serious brain injury, doctors can help them cope with the consequences, but they often can’t fix the damage that has been done. Or can they? Spurred by patient families who won’t settle for the status quo, a team of scientists is challenging a long-held belief about the brain’s limits.
Young Tobin at SickKids
Tobin in Nursing School
Tobin is giving back to SickKids, 20 years after his first visit
By Toronto Star
Posted March 19, 2022
Those who know Tobin marvel at his perseverance. At age two, he was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour that required emergency surgery to save his life. Chemotherapy and radiation followed, in hopes of eliminating what remained of the cancer, but it returned when he was five and again when he was nine. By the time he was 12, Tobin had endured three major brain surgeries, 20 months of chemotherapy and 63 radiation treatments. His thyroid was permanently damaged, and he’d lost the ability to hear out of his right ear. But his grit remained.
Those who know Tobin marvel at his perseverance. At age two, he was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour that required emergency surgery to save his life. Chemotherapy and radiation followed, in hopes of eliminating what remained of the cancer, but it returned when he was five and again when he was nine. By the time he was 12, Tobin had endured three major brain surgeries, 20 months of chemotherapy and 63 radiation treatments. His thyroid was permanently damaged, and he’d lost the ability to hear out of his right ear. But his grit remained.
Shortly after coming out of his third major brain surgery, Tobin’s mother recalls the pained pre-teen asking, “How did it go?” She told him the neurosurgeon got it all, and Tobin responded, “Good. Baseball and camp.”
He wanted his life to be about more than cancer and what he’d endured to survive it. So, in addition to baseball and summer camp, Tobin resumed school, played hockey, and gave back to the place that had become a second home: SickKids.
“I grew up at SickKids,” explained Tobin. “As funny as it is to say, I looked forward to going to SickKids, just because of the environment and the doctors, nurses, patients and volunteers that make it so special.”
Beginning in 2006, Tobin started telling his story as a Patient Ambassador for SickKids Foundation. He also became a participant in clinical trials to find new ways of treating the long-term effects of brain radiation. And in 2010, he joined the SickKids Children’s Council — a group of patients and siblings who work together to make SickKids a better place by sharing their perspectives on SickKids programs.
He also started doing something else improbable for a brain tumour survivor: thinking about what he wanted to study at university. Because of the impact of cancer and its treatment on the growing brain, many survivors experience cognitive challenges and struggle in school. However, mere months from now, Tobin will complete a long-held dream: He will graduate from the University of Calgary with a degree in nursing.
It hasn’t been easy. This past summer he was diagnosed with a new cancer — this time in his heart. Further tests also showed multiple tumours in his body. He had open-heart surgery last September and is now taking a daily chemotherapy pill. But as always, Tobin isn’t letting that stop him. And his life has come full circle: He’s back at SickKids for his nursing student placement.
Even though he describes the experience as “surreal,” there’s nowhere he’d rather be.
“SickKids gave me a life,” he explained. “Because I was there for so long, and because of the great hospital that it is, the care I received, and the nurses specifically, it influenced my career path. I want to give back to the community, whether it be SickKids or another organization or hospital, but to give back to the community that helped me get where I am today.”
Torstar, the Star’s parent company, is in a fundraising and educational partnership with The Hospital for Sick Children to help raise $1.5 billion for new facilities. This content was produced by SickKids as part of that partnership.
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