Lilliana Castro, a mother of four, is one of the few lucky individuals to face Hurricane Harvey head on and survive to tell the story. The Texas mom was forced to make a tough decision in a matter of seconds that would save her son’s life in the end.
Tony, 11, was scheduled for a brain tumor removal in Houston. The San Antonio family had been making the 200-mile journey once every six weeks. This appointment was the most important one, and Hurricane Harvey would not stop Lilliana from getting her son there.
After a five-hour journey in the vicious rain, the Castro family arrived at their hotel in Houston. Things would not get any easier for the family there, but obstacles were not new to them in this odyssey. They had to go through a rollercoaster of emotions to get where they were.
It all started when San Antonio doctors told Castro that treatment on Tony was too dangerous for them to perform. She paid them no mind and found Dr. David Sandberg in Houston, who helped take care of her son’s second surgery. He also helped them when they were at the hotel with no way to make it to the hospital.
Sandberg phoned a friend who put him in contact with Jeff Weinstock, a chef from the area who was delivering food donations to people. His Ford F-150 truck also allowed him to assist on rescue missions. He agreed to help Castro and her family, but there was still a difficult task ahead of them.
Hurricane Harvey, Category 4, left houses barely peeking out from under water. But Weinstock’s determination had the family in the hospital within 45 minutes. In regular conditions, the trip would have taken a third of the time, but the only thing that mattered was having Tony ready for surgery.
Doctors first told Castro of her son’s brain cancer when he was 7-years-old. Since then, she has done everything to beat Tony’s sickness. It hasn’t been easy, facing challenges even at the final moment. The hospital was prioritizing new patients, postponing surgeries.
Once again, Sandberg helped the family by deciding that Tony’s procedure was of utmost importance. This surgery was Tony’s third in four years, the first in 2014 and the second one in 2016. After five hours, doctors managed to remove 90 percent of the brain tumor.
Tony is now recovering and will start new therapy. He’s lucky to have a mom as brave as his. If it wasn’t for taking the risk she took, he might have lost the fight against his storm. As for her, she’s grateful to have had Sandberg and Weinstock beside her in the most crucial of times.