Los Angeles: Just days after sharing that her 4-year-old son Baxter had died, influencer Jennifer Burnham revealed that he had been privately battling a brain tumor in the months before his passing. She had announced his death on October 12.
‘Totally Healthy, a Happy Four-Year-Old’
“My son was totally healthy, a happy four-year-old,” she said in an October 15 video shared to Instagram. “He went to school, was on a t-ball team, did karate, had tons of friends. Just couldn’t have been happier or healthier. And I think that’s why this was so shocking.”
Jennifer shared that Baxter was diagnosed with a brain tumor in April after he’d begun crossing his left eye. While doctors initially diagnosed him with strabismus — not unusual for someone of Baxter’s age — a pre-surgery MRI revealed a diffuse midline glioma.
“Which, in the brain tumor world, is essentially the worst type of brain tumor that you can have, unfortunately,” explained Jennifer, who is also mother to 21-month-old son Barron with husband Bryce Burnham, “because it’s in the brainstem and that’s inoperable, meaning it’s incurable.”
A Desperate Search for Options
Doctors were able to perform surgery to remove part of the tumor on Baxter’s cerebellum, and Jennifer and Bryce tried a multitude of other treatments, including proton radiation.
“We started just researching like crazy, hitting the ground running for what our other options were, what we could do, how can we find a cure for this?” she added. “We started doing red light therapy. We did hyperbaric oxygen. We did oxygen baths. We went to Europe twice this summer to do treatments out there that we’d heard about. I mean, anything and everything. We talked to every doctor in the country.”
But because the brainstem controls all neurological functions, surgery on that area is literally impossible.
‘Literally Helpless’
“I think that’s the hardest part because it’s so difficult to watch your child going through something like this, and you’re literally helpless,” Jennifer added. “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare, and we’ve been living in this nightmare for six months. It was the most difficult thing we’ve ever gone through, and we literally did everything possible for our child.”
She emphasised how strong Baxter had been throughout. “He was so strong and such a fighter, and literally fought until the very last day,” she said. “He had a smile on his face, and just was the happiest guy.”
Why She Chose to Speak Out
Though Jennifer hadn’t initially shared Baxter’s cause of death because his passing had been so “overwhelming,” she said she decided to share her family’s experience in the hope it might help others.
“If I can help anyone in any way, any families, with anything that we tried or did, or contacts I have, anything at all,” she said, “I want to be that person that can help another family, because no person should go through this alone.”
Finding Solace
As she and her family navigate their grief, she is finding solace in believing Baxter is in a better place. “I know he’s in heaven and just playing with his cars and trucks and eating cookies and ice cream and having the best time,” she said. “And that gives me comfort as a mom, just knowing that he’s no longer in pain.”
Though, “it doesn’t change the fact that my heart is broken,” she added. “I’m just not sure how to continue living every day. It’s so hard to just fathom my life without him, because he is such a big, full part of it.”
