By Mary Owen
In the wake of the Dec. 14 Aumsville Tornado, Jennifer and Chuck Funrue are weathering their own storm.
The Sublimity couple’s newborn son, Carter Richmond Funrue, is fighting for his life at Oregon Health Sciences University where he was born five weeks early on Nov. 22 by emergency C-section.
While celebrating his survival, his parents said good-bye to his twin, Preston Joseph, whom they had lost earlier in the pregnancy to twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.
“Our miracle finally made it into the world alive, but our other miracle did not,” Jennifer said. “It was bittersweet.”
Little Carterman, as mom and dad fondly call him, is now fighting hepatoblastoma, a form of liver cancer that means weeks of chemotherapy to shrink his tumor until surgery can be performed.
Jennifer and Chuck Funrue Medical Fund
at any US Bank, to the Ronald McDonald
House Charities, or the American Cancer Society.
Miraculously, the tumor is encapsulated inside the liver, making survival a very real possibility.
“We just want our son to be healed and go home safe and sound – and the nightmare to end,” Jennifer said.
The liver problem was discovered by an ultrasonographer while Jennifer was hospitalized on bed rest at Santiam Memorial Hospital. The technician noticed that the baby’s tummy was bigger than usual and alerted doctors.
“This seemingly small detail saved our son’s life,” Jennifer said. “We were immediately transferred to OHSU, where doctors told us if we had delayed, we may have lost Carter, too.”
Carter is the youngest child that OHSU has treated for this type of cancer. Doctors have told his parents they are in “uncharted medical territory,” the Funrues said.
“That to us is hopeful, while at the same time frightening,” Jennifer said. “We hope that will all the extraordinary circumstances we have faced that new medical data and treatment will pave the way for better treatment and cures for future families who will face these challenges.”
The Funrues worry if the tumor does not shrink to a manageable size for removal, or resection cannot be done, that their newborn son will have to have a liver transplant, requiring a trip to California.
“We are hoping for the best outcome,” Jennifer said.
Physically, she said she is fine.
“Emotionally is impossible to describe,” she added. “Fear like I have never known before, pain from the loss of our other son, and the constant changes of the seas that we are lost in right now. Ups and downs, laughing and crying.”
The Funrues credit the love and support of friends and family for standing beside them and helping them through.
“Prayers, donations and love have been coming our way since our journey began in August,” Jennifer said.
“Truthfully, we could not have survived this without everyone. The journey ahead is unknown and frightening, but we walk forward with courage and the support of many who we will never be able to than enough or adequately.”
Jennifer considers Chuck the anchor of the Funrue family, which includes Chuck’s children from a former marriage, Taylor, 10, and Dylan, 8.
Both children adore their new baby brother and have even offered to donate part of their livers, if needed, Jennifer said.
“He holds the world up when things are falling apart,” Jennifer said of her husband, a paramedic at Santiam Memorial Hospital. She is a 911 dispatcher for Santiam Canyon Communications Center.
“Chuck hides his feelings to not scare the children when they are with us and absorbs the impacts for us,” she added. “He is very caring, and underneath his armor, he is hurting and scared like I have never seen him. Without him, we could not make it.”
The Funrues continue to pray for a miracle, not just for their own son, but for all the other premature babies and sick people they see every day at OHSU.
“We are just one family facing our own personal tragedy, but down the hall in every room of the NICU is a scared mom or dad – or grandma – worried about their own loved one, praying for the same miracle we pray for,” Jennifer said.
Just before Christmas, as this story went to press, Carter’s tumor was shrinking and appears to be receding into the right lobe, which will help to avoid the need for transplant surgery, Jennifer said.
“We are far from out of the woods, still a ways to go, with unknown dangers lurking at every turn, but this family carries on together,” Jennifer added. “And we will find our way home!”
