RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
A year ago to this very day, September 8, 2020, we posted a story on young pitcher Sophia Duong of the California Cruiser who had suffered a stroke due to a spinal tumor (see story below).
We had asked the softball community to rally around this beautiful and energetic athlete and were optimistic that she would be able to get the “win” just as she had done so many times on the softball field.
Sadly, we got an update recently from her aunt, Michele Ellington, revealing that Sophia isn’t doing well.
” We have some updates that are not so good,” Michelle said. “She’s been battling and fighting over the past year but this cancer is just too aggressive. She’s still with us but we don’t know for how much longer.
Michele organized a GoFundMe page last year and, a week and a half ago, Sophia’s parents provided the following heart-breaking update for their daughter who just turned 16-years-old last Saturday:
As the world turns and the days get longer, there has been many changes in our sweet baby girl since the end of June. From the unexplainable fevers and pain, to a very shallow voice and movement of her mouth, to very little movement of her eyes, to becoming non communicative at all. Seeing all these changes to her body one at a time is gut wrenching to say the least. But that’s not where it ends.
She was having respiratory distress and had to be transported to the hospital by paramedics to be stabilized. Soon to find out her left lung was completely filled up with secretions again. She underwent an aggressive breathing treatment routine every 4 hours to get those secretions out and open up her lung. She also had to have another bronchoscopy done to help clear out her lung. She continued to improve and remain stable.
While she was in the hospital she had another routine MRI done. The results are like night and day from May and June to now. The tumor/cancer has grown very aggressively and now is in all of her spine and more so now in her brain stem putting pressure as the fluids are now completely blocked. We knew in our hearts that all these small changes were from the tumor, but just didn’t realize how much it had grown.
The most recent change is that she closed her eyes and went to sleep the night we were discharged and has not woken up since.
We are home now and she is stable, comfortable, out of pain, and resting peacefully. We are now starting to make plans to celebrate her life after she chooses when her last breath of life will be.
Everyday is uncertain but we still take it as a blessing in disguise that she is still choosing to fight til the end!! We have no regrets and did everything in our power and hers to fight against this vicious tumor/cancer. We may have not won the battle on paper, but in our hearts she won as she never gave up the fight!!! She will always live on within us and around us!! Always and forever baby!! ❤️❤️
We want to thank everyone for their continued love and support. We are beyond grateful for friends and family taking time out of their busy schedules to come and visit with Sophia. It warms our hearts to know that she has touched so many peoples lives. We appreciate the flowers and meals that everyone has brought for our family. It absolutely means the world to us.
With love,
Charlie and Angela
Aunt Michelle adds that the teenager was shown a lot of love on her birthday.
“Sophia was surrounded by her friends and family on her 16th birthday,” she says. “We know in our hearts that she felt the love from all of us and that she had that infectious smile on her face all day long.”
On behalf of Sophia’s family, we ask you awesome players, coaches, family and friends in the softball community to keep the Duong family in your thoughts and prayers. This awful situation may be made a bit easier if we they know and feel the love we have for them.
Again, here is the link to the GoFundMe if you are in a position to help support the family with the growing medical expenses.
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
*****
Softball Community: Let’s Help Cal Cruiser Pitcher Sophia Duong on Her Road to Recovery!
Originally published Sept. 8, 2021
This is Brentt Eads of Extra Inning Softball.
One of my favorite things about working in softball is getting to know the wonderful people involved. So many times, I’ve seen the fastpitch community step up and help those who need it and we’re hoping we can call upon you again to help with a very good cause and a very special young player!
Sophia Duong is a pitcher/utility player for Joaquin Villalobos’ California Cruisers 16U Sievers/Villalobos team out of Rowland Heights, California which will play in some high-profile events this fall including D9 in Florida and Bombers’ Fastpitch in Texas.
Sophia, however, won’t be traveling with the team, as she’s been in the hospital for the last 2 ½ months and faces another 3-5 weeks of recovery due to a spinal tumor that caused a stroke and was also inoperable, leaving her with limited feeling and mobility below the waist.
A GoFundMe account has been created to help her family with financial support and to prepare for life care including getting a handicapped accessible car and wheelchair.
Click HERE to access the GoFundMe Account!
We know in these difficult times, including the tough impact put on many because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that it may be hard for some to contribute; however, we ask that if you can, please help donate to Sophia’s GoFundMe account! We would love to help her and her family surpass the $100K goal!
The athlete’s aunt, Michele Ellington, wrote a beautiful tribute and explanation of what happened—it’s posted below.
I spoke with Michele this weekend and she said, “One of the hardest things for the family to endure is not being able to provide emotional support in person to Sophia and Angela (her mother) due to COVID restrictions.”
“We all need that personal touch and interaction from other human beings to help comfort us. Virtual hugs and kisses are all we are allowed to give them at this time.”
Still, despite the tough physical situation Sophia’s in, the California Cruiser is in good spirits saying, “I can’t wait to see all my teammates when I’m back on the field again! I miss them all!”
Sophia’s mom, Angela Duong, adds: “She’s a sassy, brave, beautiful, funny, strong warrior ready to fight and conquer all!”
According to Coach Villalobos, “Sophia’s top torso is functional and she does have a limited range of motion with her right arm. The recent good news is she was able to get feeling in her toes a couple times, indicating the brain is sending signals to her feet.”
The Cruisers’ coach says Sophia was picked up last fall to be a pitcher.
“She’s very strong and we were happy to get her knowing she was going to be a key to our success. Sophia was showing some really good signs as her speed kept increasing and she throws hard enough to beat you; she’s more a screwball pitcher who will attack inside and with her spins can definitely throw you off, changing speeds and eye levels. Many don’t know that she can hit really well too!”
Both her immediate and softball families say they’ve been touched and impressed with how those in the softball community have rallied behind Sophia and hope that it will continue, as over $73,000 has been raised of the $100,000 goal to meet medical costs.
“She’s such a good kid and the Duongs are such a good family,” adds Coach Villalobos, “that we were happy to get not just Sophia but her entire family too. We all just want her to have the opportunity for a healthy recovery and to get back on the dirt!”
And if you’re wavering just a bit in contributing to the GoFundMe account, know this—Sophia just turned 15 last Friday (Sept. 4, 2020), so wouldn’t it be a great birthday present for her and her family to hit the goal to help them with the support they need?
Additionally, please support the athlete, her family and Cruisers’ softball team with well-wishes, prayers and/or good thoughts!
*****
Below is the original text found on the GoFundMe page written by Sophia’s aunt, Michele Ellington, describing her medical ordeal (edited for our site)…
Dear friends and family,
Our dearest Sophia is a healthy 14 (almost 15) year old athlete who loves to play softball.
On July 2, 2020, Sophia was diagnosed with having a muscle spasm in her left shoulder blade. Seems normal for being an athlete, but over the next couple of days more symptoms developed that were not in line with a muscle spasm.
When she awoke on the morning of July 5th, she couldn’t move her right leg. She was taken to the ER where she began to lose feeling and mobility from her feet up to her chest as the evening went on. She was immediately transferred to Loma Linda Hospital and admitted to the Pediatric ICU for further testing.
MRI’s and CT scans were ordered along with other testing. The pain and discomfort that Sophia was experiencing in her neck didn’t allow for an accurate MRI to be done. Doctors needed to sedate her to keep her still during the MRI and intubated her to stabilize her breathing.
Finally they got an accurate test completed.
After multiple doctors and residents reviewed her MRI, it was determined that she has a tumor in her spinal cord column. The tumor caused her spinal cord to suffer a stroke. The stroke caused Sophia to gradually lose feeling and mobility from her torso down to her toes.
Sophia’s life has been changed forever.
The doctors cannot tell how much damage has been done by the tumor or the long-term effects. Surgery is not an option as the tumor is intertwined in her spinal cord column. Proton radiation treatments have started with the intention of breaking up the tumor.
She will remain in the hospital during the course of the next 3-5 weeks for treatment. The cost of ongoing treatments and hospital stay is adding up each day.
The immediate expenses projected to get Sophia home are overwhelming for Sophia and her family. Sophia will have needs that will not be covered by insurance. She will need equipment such as a hospital bed, a mobile lift system to transfer Sophia in and out of bed into a wheelchair and in and out of the car, a power wheelchair, a manual wheelchair and their current van will need to be modified to make it wheelchair accessible.
In addition to these modifications, she will have the cost of daily medicine, in home nursing care, and physical and occupational therapy.
The ongoing medical care that Sophia will need over the next months and possibly years is something that no family could ever be prepared for.
Our goal is to bring Sophia home where she can be supported by her family on a daily basis.
Any and all support is greatly appreciated by Sophia and her family.