Alternative treatment brings family hope

Briannah Grace Olsen turns 2 this week — with chubbier cheeks thanks to ongoing alternative treatment aimed at shrinking a grapefruit-sized tumor in her brain.

Briannah was born with juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma, which caused her not to gain weight in her first few months of life. The tumor also caused swelling in her brain, leading to multiple operations to place small shunts on both sides of her skull to relieve the pressure.

But since Briannah began experimental treatment in June in Houston, Texas, the youngest of Tammy and Mark Olsen’s three daughters has experienced a lessening in the swelling and gained a lot of baby fat. For the first time, her MRI shows no growth in the tumor.

“I’m not a new-age guru. But I love my child, and I believe, by God, I will do whatever it takes,” Tammy Olsen said. “This is the best she’s been since she was diagnosed.”

Briannah is fed a diet of milk and yogurt, fruits and vegetables, omega fats, vitamins, juices and organic mixtures designed to support her immune system. Doctors told her parents that there were no conventional treatments for Briannah.

The family is hosting a fundraiser and celebration of Briannah’s birthday on Thursday. It will let those who have helped the family meet the baby and raise funds for the ongoing $6,400 monthly costs for the treatment not covered by insurance.

For the Gilbert family, it was their devout connection with God and trust that they say led them to the Houston-based Burzynski Clinic to participate in Food and Drug Administration trials using synthetic organic compounds called antineoplastons.

Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski developed the treatment more than 30 years ago and has treated more than 3,000 patients with the intravenous compound, which essentially reprograms the brain tumor cells to die off and stop growing, according to the clinic.

It’s the same treatment Charlene Garst, of Mesa, said saved her 14-year-old son, Bryce, who battled a different kind of brain tumor when he was 3 years old.

The treatment, considered nontoxic, shrank a tumor that took up 39 percent of the left hemisphere of his brain and has allowed him to stabilize and live a normal life, Garst said. She now operates a foundation that helps fund treatments for other families needing alternative therapies.

Garst said it’s important to have alternative treatments, particularly for cases that conventional medicine offers no cure.

“They’re our children,” she said. “We should have the right to choose what we believe is right for them.”

Birthday party

What: Briannah’s second birthday fundraiser/celebration

When: 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. with a visit from Briannah’s family from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: New York Pizza Department, 2743 S. Market St., No. 101, at the southwest corner of the Loop 202 Santan Freeway and Williams Field Road in Gilbert

To donate: Coupons are required in order to donate 20 percent of proceeds to the Baby Briannah Foundation. E-mail babybriannah@cox.net or visit

www.happilyeducatingourown.org/nypd_briannah_fundraiser_oct_11_2007.pdf

Information: Call the restaurant at (480) 782-6973 or visit www.easysite.com/babybriannah