Little Hank Taylor will make sure anyone who asks knows his exact age. "No, I'm four and a half," he said, correcting his mom.
Each day is important because, in July 2020, a diagnosis came that the family never expected.
"They found out that tumor was rhabdomyosarcoma which is an aggressive soft tissue cancer," Hank’s mother, Molly Taylor, said.
Taylor said her son went through a year of treatment at Children's Health Dallas spending much of that time in the hospital.
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"Doing that, that sounds terrible and horrible to have to spend all your time in the hospital and it just somehow wasn't," Molly said.
She praised his medical team at Children's Health for that.
His doctor, pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Children's Health and associate professor at UT Southwestern Dr. Tanya Watt, said it's their goal.
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"I think it's one of the amazing things we have here at Children's is just an entire support staff whose goal is really to make sure the entire family is getting cared for,” said Watt. “It's financially difficult. It's socially difficult. It's emotionally difficult."
Molly credits the medical care for Hank beating cancer. She credited the emotional care for his thriving through the treatments.
"They just made it so joyful for him,” Molly said. “He has so many nurse friends that he just absolutely adores."
Nurse friends whose spirits he lifted as a hospital superhero in his customs.
He had his own favorite part.
"I like the playroom," Hank said.
"That's why we do this job,” Watt said. “Because we take these children through and these families through really, really rough times. But the hope is they come out on the other side, and they go save the world or do whatever they want to do."
For all this care Hank sent a special message to them all.
"I love you," Hank said.
