Carsen is a 12-year-old young man who attends Scenic Middle School. He prides himself on being an honor student, math wizard, and sports enthusiast—especially baseball. He is described as the perfect combination of strength, tenacity, empathy, and silliness.
In September of 2023, Carsen was emergency airlifted to Portland after experiencing extreme pain and losing feeling in his right arm. While in Portland he underwent an 11-hour surgery to partially remove a tumor from his spinal cord.
Carsen was diagnosed with a very large and rare cancerous leptomeningeal glioneuronal tumor (DL-GNT), sometimes referred to as a glial cell tumor. Due to the risky location of the tumor in his spinal cord, doctors were not able to entirely remove the tumor.
During the surgery, Carsen needed 10 titanium plates and 16 screws to put his vertebrae back in place. Unfortunately, they did not heal correctly and collapsed forward after surgery, forcing Carsen to wear a neck/back brace 24/7 for several months.
Carsen is currently halfway through 18 months of intense chemotherapy treatments followed by infusions to force his bone marrow to produce more white blood cells.
Every 3 months Carsen must travel to Doernbecher (in Portland) for new MRIs, EOS scans, and X-rays. This will be his schedule for the foreseeable future.
This journey has been one that has absolutely turned this family’s world upside down. However, amidst it all, they have seen such goodness come from it and have made it their family mantra to live in the moment, focus on now, and be kind to everyone. You never know what someone may be going through. They hope Carsen’s strength will inspire others to never give up.
Carsen will be adopted as the Sparrow to Cascade Christian School. CCS students will work hard to earn money for Carsen through sponsored community service.