Post by Patty on Jun 16, 2006 22:27:17 GMT -5
Mario Pagan
Born: 1995
Passed Away: 2003
Mario Pagan
Born: 1995
Passed Away: 2003
Mario Pagan
Staff (01-29-02)
PALO ALTO — At age 8, Mario Pagan might have asked for a trip to Disneyland or a visit from a professional athletes to get his mind off cancer.
Instead, he simply wanted to play in the dirt just outside his Palo Alto hospital window.
Mario got his wish in a big way Friday when he helped construction workers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital carve out a foundation for a new building.
Mario’s grandmother and guardian, Debbie Allen, persuaded the hospital and builders to let the sick boy strap on a hard hat and go to work on the new cancer treatment center due for completion in 2003.
“I haven’t seen this smile for a long, long time,” Allen said of Mario.
The boy’s mother, Monika Pagan, came from her home in Idaho to watch him climb on a worker’s lap and help navigate the heavy machinery through mounds of dirt.
Mario suffers from desmoplastic cancer which fills his stomach with tumors. Mario’s grandmother said he hasn’t responded to chemotherapy.
After trying his hand at the dump truck and bulldozer Mario accepted a few souvenirs from the crew.
Mario told his grandmother of his day in the dirt, “It was fun. I was helping.”
PALO ALTO — At age 8, Mario Pagan might have asked for a trip to Disneyland or a visit from a professional athletes to get his mind off cancer.
Instead, he simply wanted to play in the dirt just outside his Palo Alto hospital window.
Mario got his wish in a big way Friday when he helped construction workers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital carve out a foundation for a new building.
Mario’s grandmother and guardian, Debbie Allen, persuaded the hospital and builders to let the sick boy strap on a hard hat and go to work on the new cancer treatment center due for completion in 2003.
“I haven’t seen this smile for a long, long time,” Allen said of Mario.
The boy’s mother, Monika Pagan, came from her home in Idaho to watch him climb on a worker’s lap and help navigate the heavy machinery through mounds of dirt.
Mario suffers from desmoplastic cancer which fills his stomach with tumors. Mario’s grandmother said he hasn’t responded to chemotherapy.
After trying his hand at the dump truck and bulldozer Mario accepted a few souvenirs from the crew.
Mario told his grandmother of his day in the dirt, “It was fun. I was helping.”
From his room at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Mario Vasquez Pagan (left) was captivated by heavy construction equipment at the medical center's future cancer center site. The 7-year-old Packard patient, who has not responded to treatment for rare desmoplastic cancer, was itching to get behind the controls of one of the earth movers. John Gaston, project manager for the center, caught wind of Mario's dream and made sure it came true.