Moses Lake baby fights brain tumor

MOSES LAKE — Little Aylanie Reyes has been at Seattle Children’s Hospital since March 13, battling a brain tumor. She’s putting up a good fight, but it’s not easy, said her dad, Ricardo Reyes.

“She’s pretty down right now,” Reyes said. “They have her on morphine, for pain, and she’s pretty sleepy. She can’t eat; they have a feeding tube in her.”

Aylanie, who turned 6 months old on Sunday, just started her first round of chemotherapy, Reyes said. She’ll have six cycles of chemo for six months.

The tumor was a complete surprise, Reyes said. Her parents took her to the walk-in clinic because she was congested, he said, and the staff there saw that there was more wrong than just a cold and sent them to the emergency room at Samaritan. There Aylanie had a CT scan that showed a tumor, and she and her parents were flown right away to Seattle.

Because Aylanie is so small, surgery isn’t an option right now, Reyes said; there’s too much risk to her life.

“They’re hoping … the chemo will be able to shrink the tumor so they can remove it safely,” he said.

Reyes and Aylanie’s mother, Odalis Tovar, have both had to take time off work. The parents have been spending their time either in Aylanie’s room or lodging provided by Ronald McDonald House, Reyes said. Their employers have been supportive, Reyes said, but they don’t have paychecks coming in, and eventually, he’ll have to go back to work.

Odalis Tovar’s brother Luis Tovar has started a GoFundMe page for the family, which had raised $8,760 as of Monday morning. Tovar, who speaks Spanish, said through an interpreter that the family is having a difficult time.

“They’re feeling sad and hopeless, because they never thought this was going to happen to them,” Tovar said.

Besides donations to the GoFundMe, the family can use prayers, Tovar said.

“Your kindness and generosity mean the world to us, and we are deeply grateful for everyone standing with our little warrior and our family during this time,” he wrote on the GoFundMe page.

Those wishing to donate to Aylanie’s family can visit https://bit.ly/AylaniesFight