Two-year turnaround: Windsor toddler fights the odds and wins

The loud sound of a train's whistle as it rolls down the tracks behind Derek Jacobsen's home sends the Windsor toddler into tears.

"I need Mama," he says sobbing with his hands over his ears. "It's too loud."

And while Mama Julia picks him up and consoles him, one thing is clear in this east Windsor home.

A lot has changed in two years.

It wasn't very long ago that Julia Jacobsen and her husband, David, couldn't hear the little boy, 3, make any noise because of a ventilator tube that kept him quiet.

Derek was born with chronic lung disease. His lungs collapsed at just 2 days old. He had a paralyzed left diaphragm and Pierre Robin Sequence, a condition present at birth marked by a small lower jaw that causes the tongue to displace to the back of the throat, obstructing the airway.

Derek's condition came from being born 11 weeks early. He was 4 and 1/4 inches long and weighed 2 pounds, 7 ounces. Only 20 percent of babies born with Derek's condition survive the first seven days of life.

In March 2006, the family was able to begin weaning Derek from the machines that kept him confined to his home. The fear of the tube becoming clogged and Derek suffocating was enough to keep David and Julia sleeping with one eye open all the time on the floor of their youngest child's room.

But soon after, the family received another blow. Derek also had Hepetoblastoma, a rare form of liver cancer that affects prematurely born children. It was caught only because Derek's doctor took the time to investigate a strange lump in his abdomen.

After one round of chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, doctors removed it. And a lymph node came out too, just to be safe.

But Derek battled on. Today, he's cancer free -- in remission for more than a year now -- and off the trach collar. He has a 98 percent chance for survival.

"It's amazing what the power of prayer will do," Julia said. "And he has no holes in his body that God hasn't given him."

Although the chemotherapy damaged the high frequency tones in Derek's ears, even that doesn't slow down this spunky "firecracker."

He must still undergo annual echocardiograms and liver scans every three months to check for damage to his heart from the chemotherapy or a return of the cancer, but to date, he has shown no signs of either.

And now, after two years of being a nurse and a respiratory therapist, Julia can just be the stay-at-home mom she always wanted to be, chasing Derek and his older sister Jessica, 6, around the house and taking day trips to the Family Fun Plex in Greeley, where Derek loves the water.

"We were so excited we could go swimming as a family," Julia said. "Before, with Derek's trach collar, he could barely take a bath. We can finally start to enjoy life as a family."

See the whole story:

The Tribune began following Derek Jacobsen when he was preparing for surgery to remove the tumor in his liver nearly 2 years ago. Log on to www.greeleytribune.com to read the first installment.