Family Loses 3rd Child to Inherited Disease

10-year-old girl dies from brain cancer
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 17, 2016 10:17 AM CST
Updated Feb 21, 2016 2:50 PM CST
Family Loses Third Child to Inherited Disease
Isabella Mading   (The Mading Foundation/Facebook)

A Florida family has lost a child to cancer triggered by a rare genetic mutation, all the more tragic because it's the third time in six years this has happened to the Madings. Ten-year-old Isabella died this month at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh of brain cancer that was set off by something called Lynch syndrome, reports the Naples Daily News. Isabella's brother, Cody, died in 2010 at age 17 and her sister Averi died in 2013, also at age 17. "I am sick of it," says mother Erin Mading, per Fox6. "I am sick of it for my kids. I am sick of it for every person out there." The Mading children inherited the genetic mutation from their parents, one that Erin Mading and her husband had no idea they were passing along at the time, explains WTAE in a previous story on the family's plight.

Lynch syndrome increases the risk of brain and colorectal cancers in particular, and Isabella was diagnosed at age 7. "This last year of her life, she just flourished," says her mom. "She was the social butterfly of our street." And had she beaten her cancer, Isabella knew exactly what she wanted to be when she got older: a nurse. "She grew up in a hospital with her brother and her sister," says Erin Mading. "She had a wisdom beyond her years." The family is from Bonita Springs, Fla., but they moved to Pittsburgh to make it easier for Isabella to receive a new type of infusion treatment. The Madings have two more daughters, ages 15 and 20, and one has tested negative while the other opted not to be tested. (Another genetic mutation seems to plague just one family.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X