Gable Lofthouse has spent months at Primary Children’s Hospital battling throat cancer.
PARADISE – Family and friends are rallying together to do what they can for a 14 year-old recently diagnosed with throat cancer. In January, the parents of Gable Lofthouse started to recognize that he was having a hard time breathing. After several trips to doctors and Instacare clinics over the next few weeks his condition got so bad that he was literally gasping for air on Valentines Day.
His parents took him to the emergency room where doctors eventually discovered a softball-sized tumor in his throat. He was life-flighted to Primary Children’s Hospital that same evening.
“The Doctor’s at Primary Children’s Hospital said that it was good that they found the tumor when they did because he may have suffocated that night they life flighted him,” according to a statement by Gable’s parents. Doctors there discovered that “the tumor was blocking 90% of his airway.”
Because of the tumor’s size and location in his throat, Gable has had to stay at Primary Children’s for several months. It has caused him to miss Easter, his birthday and several family events.
Sheena Zook, a neighbor of the Lofthouse family, is organizing a fundraising event for Gable and his family on May 6 at the Paradise Town Hall and Park located at 9000 South 100 W.
“We will be selling t-shirts, baked goods and we will be having a silent auction from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” says Zook.
Zook says Gable’s parents have been going back and forth to the hospital while his dad has been trying to work a full time job. Expenses have piled up quickly and there is no target date to when Gable will be released.
“With all the medical expenses, his dad traveling back and forth, it’s super expensive for them,” Zook continues. “They have five other kids…I am just trying to raise money to help ease the burdens so they don’t have to worry about the money while he’s in the hospital.”
Zook says that Gable has a really hard time with chemotherapy treatments and has several more to come.
Besides the event on May 6, people can donate to the family through Venmo @Cody-Lofthouse. For anyone else wanting to find out information about the event or how to help the Lofthouse family, they can call Zook at (435) 757-9608.