Tainted formula leads to early cancer diagnosis for West Michigan baby

GRAND RAPIDS — The parents of a baby girl in West Michigan say the large baby formula recall earlier this year may have saved her life.

Fifteen-month-old Mariah Pearl is Jared and Mary Ritsema’s rainbow baby. Mary has a 26-year-old son, but when she and Jared married, they wanted to have a child together. After a miscarriage, they'd given up on the idea. Then, they learned Mariah was on the way.

The moment she arrived, she was calling the shots.

“She grabbed my finger and the nurses said, ‘I think you’re coming with us, Dad!’ So they set her in (the warmer) and she held my finger the whole time,” Jared recalled.

She’s had both parents wrapped around that finger ever since.

But the formula recall six months after Mariah was born marked the beginning of major life changes for the family. The couple noticed Mariah seemed lethargic and sick. Visits to the pediatrician didn’t give them any answers, so they ended up in the emergency room.

“Our friend (had) sent me a text and said, ‘Your formula’s been recalled’ and I said, ‘What?'” Mary said.

Mary called the recall “a blessing in disguise.” It was the formula that pushed them to the ER, but once there, they got another diagnosis: An ultrasound revealed a cancerous tumor — stage four neuroblastoma. While doctors, at first, thought it was of the low-risk variety, a second test revealed otherwise.

“It’s more aggressive. It’ll come back if you don’t go through the extensive treatments,” Mary said.

The treatment plan changed from about six months to about two years.

Life in the hospital isn't restful. Mariah has been admitted for long stretches of chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants and complications.

“Six different pumps with medications going off every hour, or every half-hour there’s beeping,” Jared said.

The treatment also revealed another problem — the result of complications from Mariah’s birth. Doctors used forceps during delivery, which led to fluid in Mariah's brain and emergency brain surgery during cancer treatment.

“She’s the second kid to ever have this surgery done at Helen DeVos (Children’s Hospital),” Jared said.

Watching their baby fight is the hardest part.

“Jared has handled a lot of the hard stuff that I can’t handle," Mary said. "Seeing your daughter get sedated and she’s six months old is heart-wrenching."

Other pressures at home have added to the challenge. Jared said he lost his job with a trucking company as a result of his daughter’s cancer. He's dedicated every minute since to Mariah. He said he watches her blood counts when she’s sleeping and does the math.

“I try to figure out when she’s going to need her next transfusion,” he said.

“He’s taught himself everything about this diagnoses,” Mary said. “They almost recruited him to be a nurse there.”

The couple marvels at Mariah’s demeanor, especially at the hospital, and have a theory about why she seems so happy, even during treatment.

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“We’re all here together and we’re in a room and it just makes her happy for all of us to be together and spending time together,” Mary said.

That’s something they'd like to keep up, long after her treatment is over.

“After having the opportunity to take care of Mariah and be home, I’m not going to go on the road for two to four nights (a week). There’s so much to be thankful for right here,” Jared said.

Friends of the family have organized a GoFundMe to help cover expenses. Learn more at gofund.me/0c669f72.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Tainted formula leads to early cancer diagnosis for West Michigan baby