LANSING, Mich. (WILX) -When Liam “LJ” Rivers started crying uncontrollably and couldn’t express what was wrong, parents Maddie and Cody knew something was wrong with their happy one-and-a-half-year-old boy.
They took him to University of Michigan Health-Sparrow, where he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, an aggressive form of childhood cancer.
“I think as parents, you do anything you can. For your kids. There was a lot of unknown, and the way that my husband and I think is knowledge is power and so we just kept asking questions and researching and doing everything we can to understand what was happening to our son,” said LJ’s Mother, Maddie.
Although he was able to return home thanks to aggressive chemotherapy for six months, he would relapse in December 2024.
While in the hospital, LJ contracted RSV – doctors told his parents they weren’t sure if he would survive the night. He would be intubated and fight for his life for three weeks, and miraculously pull through.
“The doctor made it very clear to us he wasn’t sure if he was going to make it through the night. He was ventilated and he had to relearn how to hold up his head. He had to relearn how to sit up. He had to relearn how to walk. He’s just now been walking for a couple of weeks now by himself. He had to relearn how to swallow, how to eat,” said Maddie.
LJ has since had a bone marrow transplant in March of this year. Although the road to recovery is long, Mom Maddie says that no matter what he’s been through, her son keeps dancing and smiling.
“It meant so much to us that we got to be so close to home, while he got his treatment. When we first got diagnosed, everyone was telling us, ‘You know, go to Saint Jude. Go here, go there.’ And we’re like, ‘we trust our doctors right here in Lansing,’” said Maddie.
“It really showcases everything that he’s been through and he is a true miracle that wants to keep smiling and keep fighting every single day to get past this.”
LJ Rivers is the UM-Health Sparrow 2025 Miracle Child!
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