LeRoy comes to the aid of Rollins

Published 12:00 am Friday, September 3, 1999

LEROY – Zane Rollins was only a fifth grader when he had the first surgery.

Friday, September 03, 1999

LEROY – Zane Rollins was only a fifth grader when he had the first surgery. It had to be done. The doctors said so. There was no mistake. It was cancer.

Email newsletter signup

A brain tumor at the top of his spinal column was removed.

Afterwards, doctors declared the surgery a success and he recovered.

The cancer returned.

Two years later, a brain scan revealed something more.

He had to have more brain surgery and another tumor, this one the size of an acorn, was removed.

Doctors declared this surgery successful and Rollins, then a seventh grader, went home.

The cancer returned.

It was April 1998 and another tumor was located in the same place at the base of his skull.

This time, doctors said they would use the new gamma knife radiation surgery and a tumor the size of a kidney bean was removed from the youth’s head.

The cancer returned.

Another gamma knife radiation treatment was performed in October 1998. It was his fourth brain surgery and not the last.

The youth recovered only to face another surgery, when the cancer returned.

In March of this year, the youth, age 15, had his fifth brain surgical procedure in four years.

And, you thought you had it bad, huh?

"Everyone is dealt raw deals in life," said the youth’s mother, Sandra Rollins, "Some kids have to deal with abuse, some kids have no parents. Everybody has to deal with something bad in life and all of those things, no matter how bad they are, are no less traumatic than what Zane has. We must remember that.

"Our family is strong. We’ve always gotten along. There have never been any hostilities," she said. "Our relatives and friends have been wonderful and so supportive. You should see the cards and letters Zane has received. Even big posters. His classmates have been especially wonderful.

"We’re still hoping that we will find something that will stop it. We’re not giving up. Never," the mother said.

It’s called ependymoma, a malignant tumor that appears at the base of the skull in the fourth ventricle atop the spinal cord. Rare to most, it most commonly makes victims of children and teenagers.

In this case, it is doing that to a LeRoy high school sophomore, but it is also making Greg and Sandra Rollins and their sons, James, 18, and Zane, 15, stronger in the face of such cruel adversity.

And, as it has done so many times before, the entire community of LeRoy is rallying behind the family.

The Rev. Steve Elderbrock is welcomed into the Rollins home along East Lowell Street in LeRoy near lunchtime Wednesday.

He comes bearing an envelope with money from the community’s Good Samaritan Fund.

The surgeries, hospital stays, trips to other medical experts and everything else associated with the hellish last four years of their life have exacted a financial toll, too, upon the family.

Greg Rollins is away at work at Hanson Tire Service, so the mother and her two sons express the family’s gratitude and when Sandra tries to explain how they feel about LeRoy’s generosity, she breaks into tears and sobs and cannot continue. The room grows silent.

The Rollins family moved to LeRoy 20 years ago from Chester, Iowa, their hometown.

Oldest son James, a stellar academician and athlete at LeRoy-Ostrander High School leaves Saturday for freshman classes at the University of Minnesota, where he will study actuary science and pursue his favorite sports.

Zane, a bright young man and until his illness an avid baseball and basketball player, awaits the results of still-another brain scan.

If something is found that shouldn’t be there, it could mean another agonizing decision. Five surgeries, dozens of chemo therapy and radiation treatments and drugs haven’t stopped ependymoma from ravaging the teenager’s body.

"I guess, the Lord feels he can handle it," said his mother. "Otherwise, why would this be happening?"

The teenager had never been seriously sick or injured before ependymoma arrived in his life. His mother likes to describe the cancer as a "sack of seeds. When you pull one out, another one takes its place and they never go away."

The family member has traveled a roller coaster of emotions since 1995. Disbelief, then elation after the first surgery. More disbelief followed by relief. Then, anger and more anger and even more anger and a kind of acceptance now.

The family has had prayer and healing services conducted for Zane by the United Methodist Church of Chester, Iowa, and the congregation’s pastor, the Rev. Bob Holdorf, and said their own private prayers over and over.

Nothing has worked, but still they pray.

They praise the doctors at Mayo Clinic for doing "all they could."

Dr. Henry Freedman, head of the Brain Tumor Center Clinic at Duke University, Durham, N.C., also receives praise for recommending treatments that, to be certain, have not worked.

Now, they talk about a new drug to be tried.

The family has refused the suggestions and temptations to go outside the United States for a "miracle" treatment or cure.

As the mother recounts in detail the family’s ordeal, both her sons sit in silence until one speaks.

"He’s gone through so much. I can’t believe all he has done," said older brother James.

Zane, usually a talkative teenager among friends, can only smile in response to his brother’s praise.

Game-time is 7:30 p.m. tonight for the inaugural football Friday night of the high school season.

The LeRoy-Ostrander Cardinals face Nicollet, which beat the Cardinals in last year’s Prep Bowl playoffs 40-27.

Before the football kick-off. there will be a benefit from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the LOHS Commons for Zane Rollins. Roast pork sandwiches, baked beans, chips, dessert bars, milk, punch and coffee are on the menu.

Friends of the family, including several LeRoy-Ostrander Elementary School teachers, Diane Fechner, Rhonda Newton, Kari King, Barb King and others, are sponsoring the fund-raiser.

Talking about the benefit makes Sandra Rollins uncomfortable. "We didn’t ask for it, but they insisted upon it," she said. "I think it’s just great and that it’s something that only happens in a small town where people really care about each other. LeRoy is that kind of town."

James remains silent and his brother only smiles. He has done much listening while his mother tells of his one-on-one battle with cancer. If one would expect a bitter teenager, they would be wrong. The harshest thing Zane can say about his own predicament is that he is "sick of it."

So, who is this teenager making the goal line stand of his life against cancer?

"Has all of this changed you? Has all of the medical emergencies, the surgeries, the ups and downs and now the attention changed you?" Zane Rollins is asked.

"No," he responded after thinking about it. "That’s what I would tell others like me. Don’t let the disease change you. Be yourself."