For 3-year-old Cooper Sossaman, Christmas this year was bookended by stints in the hospital as he battles cancer for the second time.
Cooper, who was born prematurely, spent nine months being treated for a tumor when he was 2 years old. Last summer, cancer returned. As Cooper undergoes treatment in Front Range hospitals, the Pine River Valley community has rallied in support of the Ignacio-area family.
“You deal with it one day at a time,” said Nicole Sossaman, Cooper’s mother. “We do have our faith in God, and we pray a lot. When you’re in this type of situation, you don’t have any choice, you just have to survive.”
Cooper has experienced multiple health complications since he was born, she said.
He was born at 34 weeks with a unique mutation of the Arid1A gene, a gene that has been associated with childhood cancers.
Cooper is the only recorded person in the world with that specific mutation, said Austin Larson, a pediatric genetics doctor with Children’s Hospital Colorado. Never-before-seen mutations are not unusual in pediatric genetics, he said.
Medical providers have based his treatment on Coffin-Siris syndrome, which is not Cooper’s diagnosis but does have some overlapping characteristics.
In July 2019, doctors found an 8 centimeter tumor on his kidney two days before his second birthday. The cancer spread to his lungs, chest and up to his neck.
Medical providers did not know for sure that his mutation was causing the cancer, Larson said. However, there are links between other Arid1A mutations and childhood cancer.
“I’m almost certain that it is relevant in terms of cancer diagnosis, but there’s a lot to be worked out in terms of the mechanisms,” he said.
In utero, he had fluid around his heart and lungs, but the doctors didn’t know why, Sossaman said. Her amniotic fluid during the pregnancy increased to the point that it seemed like she was having twins. The doctors did not know why that was happening, either.
“Everything was idiopathic. ... You know how many times I’ve heard that with my son? A lot,” she said.
Her son’s first experience with cancer was a Wilms tumor, which has a 93% five-year survival rate for children.
“At the time, (the doctor) said, if your kid’s going to have cancer, this is the one you want,” Sossaman said.
Cooper went through 11 days of radiation and nine months of continued treatment. This summer, a series of scans led to the discovery of a new tumor, behind his lungs, between the lining of the lungs and his spine. This time, Cooper’s cancer has a 30% to 40% survival rate.
“When he’s in the hospital, all he wants to do is go home. He covers his face when anybody comes in. He’s just way different than how he is as a person,” she said.
Before Christmas, Cooper and his parents were airlifted to Denver when he had a neutropenia, an abnormally low number of white blood cells, which is often a side effect of chemotherapy treatments.
“Normally, we could be treated for neutropenia in Durango, but they didn’t have any beds. They were all filled with COVID patients,” Sossaman said.
Mercy Regional Medical Center said Thursday it could not speak directly about an individual patient’s care.
The 3-year-old is in a clinical trial that opened early, specifically for his treatment, and he is undergoing 10 rounds of chemotherapy. It could take up to 10 months depending on Cooper’s recovery between treatments, which is taking longer than it did before, Sossaman said.
They were back in Denver after Christmas for another round of chemotherapy, which was delayed because his body had not recovered from the last treatment.
If the chemotherapy treatment is not successful, her son will have a bone marrow transplant, she said.
This round of treatments and hospital stays has been harder for the entire family, a blended family with eight children.
Cooper’s parents have not been able to work. They rely on free lodging and groceries provided by a nonprofit, Brent’s Place, when they are in Denver.
Residents from Bayfield, Ignacio and up and down the Pine River Valley have arranged fundraisers to assist the family.
The Bayfield Early Education Program, where Luke and Cooper Sossaman go to preschool, and a local cornhole team held a cornhole tournament in Ignacio for the family.
Beth Lamberson, economic recovery coordinator with the town of Bayfield, created an online Rally.org fundraiser, which had raised more $3,000 as of Wednesday.
“People can’t change the outcome of what’s happening to the family, or anyone, in a health crisis. There’s a real motivation for people to do something,” Lamberson said. “We just want to keep this family from having to worry about one more thing.”
For Nicole Sossaman, the support helps the family focus on her son’s health as he continues his battle against cancer.
“It’s crazy the amount of support. We feel so blessed,” she said. “It’s overwhelming, honestly. We don’t know where to begin thanking everybody.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
