When mom-of-three Savannah Bonilla took her toddler to the hospital for a suspected broken arm, nothing could have prepared her for the diagnosis they were about to receive.
Bonilla, of Palestine, Texas, watched in shock as her 2-year-old son, Baker, fell and landed awkwardly on his arm. It looked as if he had broken his arm, but when Baker got straight back up and carried on playing, she thought maybe her assumption was wrong.
But, later that night, Baker kept crying and holding his arm, suggesting there was more to his injury after all. Bonilla, 35, told Newsweek that “something in [her] gut” told her she needed to take him to the hospital.
“It was such an unexplainable feeling,” Bonilla said. “We took Baker to the emergency room, and it was confirmed that he had a hairline fracture in his right radius.”
As Baker was about to be discharged, Bonilla and her husband, who are both in the medical field, requested for him to have blood work done. The 2-year-old had a low-grade fever, and a “very odd rash” that kept coming and going for five or so days.
After taking a look at Baker and noticing how pale he looked, the emergency room doctor agreed and ran the blood work.
“Within around five to10 minutes, the doctor came back and told us that Baker’s hemoglobin was 5.4, and my husband and I immediately knew that something was terribly wrong,” Bonilla said.
The family was immediately transferred to Children’s Medical Center Dallas two hours away for more testing. That is where they received the devastating news that Baker had b-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Bonilla recalls how numb she felt in that moment because “the world stopped” and her worst nightmare became a reality.
Gone were the days of her toddler playing in parks, going swimming, and getting to be like other children his age. His days would be consumed by chemotherapy and hospital visits instead.
“The grief, pain, fear, the feeling of failure, the confusion are all insurmountable. All while you’re trying to hold it together because you’re holding a sick and scared little boy, and his whole little world is going to be flipped upside down,” Bonilla said.
She continued: “My husband and I did everything we could to lean on each other and be strong for Baker. But, that night, we didn’t know whether, in a year’s time, we would still have our son. We didn’t know how many more hugs we would be able to give Baker.”
Within 72 hours of his diagnosis, Baker underwent a bone marrow biopsy and port insertion into his chest, and was beginning chemotherapy. He spent the next 11 months in front-line treatment, which entails weekly chemotherapy, hospital admissions, and additional procedures to fight the cancer.
After completing his front-line treatment, Baker was moved onto maintenance treatment, which will last for around two-and-a-half years if everything goes as planned. This still requires daily chemotherapy and other medication, but his hospital visits will be monthly rather than weekly, and he will have procedures every three months instead.
Over the last year, one of the hardest things for Bonilla and her husband has been all the different versions they have witnessed of their eldest son. He has gone through so much more than most people would experience in a lifetime, and it has stripped him of a great deal of his early childhood.
“Baker gained 18 pounds within the first month of treatment due to medication,” Bonilla said. “Within that month, he lost his ability to walk due to joint pain and neuropathy in his feet from the medication. Months later, Baker lost his hair and lost so much weight that he was down to his 1-year-old weight of 24 pounds when he was almost 3.”
Indeed, when they show Baker pictures of himself during treatment, sometimes he can’t even recognize himself.
In addition to his parents, Baker has also been supported by his younger brother, Briggs, and has a baby sister, Lawson, who was born in April. The siblings are inseparable, but it is painful for Bonilla to see the very different lives her two sons lead. Baker hasn’t had the childhood she always dreamed of giving him, and it has left her with “the most-helpless feeling.”
Baker, now 3, is doing much better, and many of the restrictions he had during front-line treatment have been lifted. Now, he can play in parks, go fishing, and go swimming.
After celebrating her son’s “first cancerversary,” Bonilla shared a post on TikTok (@savannah23210) to show how far he had come. The post has gone viral with over 3.5 million views and more than 417,000 likes on TikTok since it was shared in June.
The entire family is so proud of Baker for showing such resilience and bravery at such a young age. Bonilla has been amazed by the overwhelmingly supportive response online, which she hopes will raise awareness for childhood cancer.
Bonilla continued: “The accomplishment that Baker has made in his short life is something that I wanted to share with the world. He is such an inspiration. Baker’s story is that of perseverance, tenacity, courage, and, most importantly, love.
“No child should ever have to endure this, but they fight with everything they have, and they are the definition of strength.”
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