Wheaton boy dies after brave fight against leukemia

As his family fussed over him last weekend, Isaac Wright directed the placement of Christmas tree decorations from his bed.

The 11-year-old Wheaton boy wanted to experience the holidays.

He'd been in the hospital for months, fighting infections from the chemotherapy he'd gone through for the leukemia he'd had since age five. The family hoped to get the boy's cancer into remission, again, to try for a double-cord blood transplant.

Monday night, as his parents, brother and beloved dog surrounded him at home, Isaac lost his battle against the disease.

"Mark (his father) was working on changing Isaac's lines and fluids. As he explained to Isaac that he was going to put up a new feeding bag, Isaac's eyes opened and he looked up and beyond Mark without focusing. Mark called us over and we each tried to speak to Isaac, but we couldn't connect," his mother, Deborah, wrote in an e-mail to family and friends. "His breathing became oddly rhythmic as though he were trying to keep his body going. Within a few minutes he was gone."

Deborah Wright said the family grieves "deeply as we go about our life without Isaac. We do find comfort in knowing that Isaac is in heaven without the leukemia where there is no sorrow or pain."

Volunteers rallied in recent months to raise the $85,000 needed to help with costs for the new surgery as the family neared its $2 million insurance cap. Already-planned events will continue.

Isaac had a bone-marrow transplant in February, for which his brother Nathaniel served as a donor. And money raised through the Children's Organ Transplant Association will reimburse the family for expenses they've incurred related to that surgery and during Isaac's care over the past two years, said Rob O'Dell, a neighbor and family friend who coordinated the "Hope for Isaac" campaign.

A bowl-a-thon and celebration of Isaac's life is planned Dec. 13 at Carol Stream Brunswick Zone, 170 W. North Ave., Carol Stream. Information is available at cotaforisaacw.com.

Visitation for Isaac is at Hultgren Funeral home, 304 N. Main St., Wheaton from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday. Funeral services are 1 p.m. Saturday at Glen Ellyn Evangelical Covenant Church, 277 Hawthorne St. Glen Ellyn.