Our son, Corbin Levesque, is facing a health crisis. At 23 years old he is confronted with severe heart failure that is leading to needing a heart transplant.

His medical journey started when he was five years old. One morning he came into my room and told me his leg hurt and he was limping. I figured it was just growing pains. He had been sick with pneumonia for the last week and couldn't possibly have hurt himself. He was limping more as the day wore on. By that night he was crying out in pain when he needed to move. I carried him to the couch and called the advice nurse and she asked me if he might have broken his leg. I told her that was pretty much impossible. She told me to take him to the ER and said that they may end up admitting him. I couldn't imagine what she was talking about. Why would they want to keep him?

I took him in and they did some blood tests and an ultrasound of his hip area to see if there may be fluid that had built up in the joint due to the pneumonia. After a while the doctor came in and said he had good news and bad news. His good news was that there was no fluid found in the joint. He hesitated with the bad news and said that there were some problems with his bloodwork. Then he told me that he wasn't qualified to diagnose the problem and he was sending us up to Doernbecher's Children's Hospital. I was exhausted. At this point it was around 3:00 in the morning so I asked him for the address and said I would call them later in the day. He told me he had an ambulance on the way for us. I was starting to feel alarmed. When I asked him why he told me I would need to talk to an oncologist there. I then yelled, “That means CANCER!!” My mind started to race with fear. I felt like my world had just fell out from under me. I collapsed into a chair sobbing, “Please don't let my child die!” Soon the ambulance was there and as we got in I kept feeling like this was all a bad dream.

His dad met us up at Doernbecher and we got set up in one of the rooms in the cancer ward. Nurses and doctors were coming in and out talking about tests they were doing. I started to tell myself that the ER doctor we saw must have been completely incompetent and didn't know what he was talking about. I came to imagine the oncologists coming to us with the test results and telling us how sorry they were that the ER doctor we saw put us through all this and that he was completely incorrect in what he thought the diagnosis was. I comforted myself that this nightmare would be over soon…only it wasn't. Corbin was diagnosed with Leukemia (AML) on October 23, 2004 - the worst day of my entire life.

The odds of survival were 50/50 so aggressive chemotherapy was started. One of the drugs in his chemo cocktail was Doxorubicin which is very potent and effective against the cancer but also has the potential to damage the heart. Regrettably, on October 21, 2005, almost exactly a year after his Leukemia diagnosis, that very drug that previously saved his life, we now discovered did damage his heart. He was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and was started on medication. Thankfully, he didn't feel any effects of the heart condition or the medication and he was able to be a regular, active kid for many years, including playing youth tackle football with CCYF, which he loved. Football became a passion of his and he was so excited to get to high school and be able to play. Unfortunately, in August of 2013, just before his first high school football game, his heart function took a turn for the worse and his dream of playing high school football was taken away from him.

Even though he wasn't able to play, he still got involved in it by coaching. He has touched many lives since he started coaching nine years ago. He loves getting to build special bonds every single year and be a part of these kids' lives. And the joy it brings his life is indescribable. He loves being able to learn dozens of new things every single year and being in a competitive atmosphere.

Unfortunately, in December of 2021 he was hospitalized twice for severe heart failure and is being evaluated for the need for a heart transplant as his heart may not last another year. It has been terrifying and stressful for him but those fond memories and hope for what his coaching future holds has been helping him so much. He is thankful for all who are currently and who have been a part of that journey. When he was admitted to the hospital his first thought was about possibly not being able to coach this year. He loves being able to help the kids grow and succeed and build memories that will never disappear and hates to think about missing that. 

In late February 2022, Corbin was admitted to the hospital again. On March 3, 2022 he was transferred from Legacy Salmon Creek to Providence St Vincent in Beaverton, Oregon. He was evaluated and moved into the Cardiac ICU and told he would not be able to leave without a new heart. On March 8, he was approved by the transplant board for a heart transplant and was put on the list, very near the top. They believe he could receive his heart in 10 - 14 days, so now he is spending his time just waiting for a heart to become available and will receive his transplant in the hospital he's in.