Our Warriors Who Inspire Us

Alex Enga was born with DIPG, a rare and highly aggressive brain cancer that has no effective treatment. Hours after birth, Alex began having breathing issues and was moved to the NICU where he was placed on oxygen and a CPAP machine. Nothing was helping. Thinking there might have been an obstruction, his doctors had him transferred to University of Minnesota Medical Center and after further testing with no answers they intubated him in order to perform an MRI. It was blatantly obvious to the doctors from his MRI results that Alex had DIPG. At that time there were only three known cases of infants born with this debilitating disease.

The world crumbled around Alex’s family when the doctor explained that there are no known cures for DIPG, only palliative care. If Alex had been older radiation would have been an option, but even that would have only extended his life by several months. Given his age and diagnosis, Alex’s family had no options other than compassionate extubation. They had to put aside all the hopes and dreams they had for their baby boy to pick a day and time to end his suffering. On January 16, 2015, at a mere nine days old, Alex passed in his sleep with his family by his side.

While Alex didn’t have much time on earth, the impact and love he left behind are immense. DIPG might have stolen Alex’s life, but his legacy will continue to live on through the work his mother does raising money to fund cancer research in hopes that one day no other family has to live the same nightmare and make the same life-altering decisions she was forced to make.