Childhood leukemia patients often arrive after misdiagnosed recurrent infections.

Evidence

Nor did it occur to Truman a year later, in June 1973, that there was anything unusual about the illness of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy from east Woburn named Kevin Kane, Jr. The boy had been referred to Truman from Winchester Hospital, where his mother, a nurse, had taken him because of a persistent fever, pallor, and irritability. Two weeks earlier he had been treated unsuccessfully for a respiratory infection that did not respond to penicillin. His history on presentation at Winchester Hospital included several respiratory infections as well as recurrent episodes of earaches. Winchester referred Kevin Kane to Dr. Truman at Massachusetts General with a “high suspicion” of acute lymphocytic leukemia. Truman confirmed the suspicion. He began treating Kevin Kane on a chemotherapy regimen similar to the St. Jude protocol. The child responded well. At four weeks, a bone marrow aspiration revealed that he was in remission. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 58

Categorization

• XREF: The cluster deepens once a fourth case appears — echoes the pattern logic (How many cases make a cluster?) the author plants earlier. — connects to: The causes of childhood leukemia remain scientifically unknown — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 1475; A common low-potency pathogen can explain rare childhood leukemia better than localized toxins. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 161

Broader Connections

• A common low-potency pathogen can explain rare childhood leukemia better than localized toxins. #complicates (0.95) — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 161