Meet Rook, a superhero-loving boy whose cancer journey took him across state lines

What started as a frightening nosebleed at a family camping trip led to the early detection of Rook’s leukemia. His family and Children’s Health care team helped distract him during the toughest days. 

Rook and his family were on a family camping trip deep in Yellowstone National Park when he came down with a fever. His parents weren’t too worried — raising nine children, they aren’t strangers to illnesses. 

But after the then-3-year-old’s fever lingered, they decided to visit a small clinic inside the park. Physicians said it was likely a viral infection and that he should feel better in a week, so they carried on with their plans. 

Rook slept, then slept some more, often riding atop his dad’s back on hikes. His fever eventually went away, but he remained extremely lethargic. He struggled to go to the bathroom and eat, and his parents noticed what looked like tiny red dots on his skin. 

“He didn't want to stand up. He wouldn't walk. Not because it hurt, he would just not have enough strength,” said his mom, Rachel. “He just wanted to sit down, lay down.” 

The family decided to cut their trip short and drive out of Yellowstone, stopping at a hotel for the night with plans to head into a bigger clinic in Montana the next morning. Rook snuggled up next to his dad, Bret. 

As dawn broke, Bret rolled over in bed to check on Rook and felt “something warm and gooey,” he said.  

Blood had been gushing out of Rook’s nose overnight, pooling on the bed — and it wasn’t stopping. His parents rounded up his siblings and rushed to the emergency room. 

After running some blood tests, physicians told the family that Rook had no red or white blood cells. They also found he lacked platelets, which play an essential role in blood clotting.  

The discoveries hinted at the potential need for an oncologist, which meant Rook had to be transported by air to one of the closest hospitals with the resources to treat him. Out of a couple of options, his family opted for him to be taken to Colorado. They had family there, and it was on the way to their home in Texas. 

On the path back to Texas 

Bret stayed behind to fly with Rook while Rachel embarked on an 8-hour-long drive with the rest of her children. Rook and his dad, however, couldn’t board their flight until physicians found a blood match to perform an in-flight transfusion, which took several hours. 

Rook’s blood match took so long to find, he and his dad landed at the hospital as his mom and siblings pulled into its parking lot.  

“She's walking into the hospital. We're coming in on a gurney,” Bret said. “The timing of it couldn't have been better. It was quite the story.” 

After a number of tests and biopsies, physicians found mononucleosis in Rook’s bones, which explained the lethargy he’d experienced throughout his family’s trip. The illness, however, didn’t explain some of his other symptoms and physicians suspected he had leukemia, the most common childhood cancer. 

After a series of platelet and blood transfusions, Rook started doing a little better. He began playing, eating, talking and being himself again, so the Colorado physicians agreed to let Rook’s family go back home to Texas as long as they took him straight to Children’s Health.  

Shortly after their arrival at Children’s Medical Center Plano, physicians provided the clarity the family had been waiting for — diagnosing Rook with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  

A silver lining and something else to think about 

The diagnosis overwhelmed Bret and Rachel after the whirlwind of events that had them rushing through state lines from Yellowstone to Plano, but physicians offered a silver lining: His experiences allowed them to discover the cancer much earlier than average. 

“We were very grateful for that. There was time to prepare for his treatment,” his dad, Bret, said. “The time helped lay so many questions and concerns to rest.” 

Processing the idea that Rook, then a 3-year-old, would soon start rounds of chemotherapy was hard for his parents, but their faith, family’s support and the Children’s Health team members helped carry them through one of the hardest periods of their lives. 

“Every time we’ve come in, everyone has always been super friendly and welcoming, from the people who greet you at the front desk to the clinical staff,” Rachel said. “It’s very different from anywhere else you go.” 

Rook’s care team provided him with choices, when appropriate, at a time when so much felt out of his control. They made him feel special, gushing at the Spider Man shoes he often wore to checkups. Meeting miniature horses during their visits or the hospital’s therapy dogs — part of the Children’s Health Pet Therapy Program, which relies on philanthropic support — became one of his days’ highlights. 

“Everyone’s been wonderful,” Rachel said. “Those experiences gave him something else to think about, something else to remember.” 

Recently, with the help of generous donor contributions, Children’s Health opened a new patient tower at its Plano campus, tripling the hospital’s bed capacity.  

The new tower has allowed for the growth of several specialty care programs, including the inpatient and outpatient services of the Pauline Allen Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, expanding access to complex, critical and specialized care for kids like Rook and families across North Texas and beyond. 

After going through rounds of chemotherapy, Rook is now back to competing in gymnastics, playing soccer and dressing up like his favorite superheroes, Spider Man and Captain America. His hair is also starting to grow again, as his parents will proudly point out. 

His path to recovery isn’t over, but his parents look forward to hearing him ring the bell at Children’s Health after completing his three-year-long chemotherapy treatment. They expect he’ll be done by Thanksgiving next year, just in time to enjoy the holidays with all his siblings. 

Overcoming all odds and facing his battles bravely, Rook has become his family’s hero. 

“I hope that maybe Rook will look back one day, and his experience will encourage him to start down the medical path himself and say, ‘I’m gonna help,’” Bret said. 

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