East Helena family rallies after toddler’s leukemia diagnosis in Colorado
Otto Somerfeld’s treatment in Denver left his East Helena family facing months of travel, work disruption and medical bills. A June 27 benefit in Power will help cover what cancer care did not.
A toddler’s fever on Thanksgiving night turned into a months-long cancer fight that pulled the Somerfeld family from East Helena to Denver and back again. Now, after about six months of treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, Otto Somerfeld has rung the bell at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and a benefit in Power is set to help his family absorb the costs that came with it.
Otto was just past his first birthday when he got sick at the family’s East Helena home last fall. By about 3 a.m. on Nov. 30, his mother, Holly Somerfeld, had taken him to the emergency room, while his father, Gus Somerfeld, stayed home with their older son, LeRoy, who is 3. Blood work showed abnormalities, and the family soon headed to Colorado for answers.
Doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver confirmed acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, a fast-moving blood and bone marrow cancer. AML accounts for about 15 percent of childhood leukemia cases, and leukemia is the most common cancer in children and teens. Childhood AML treatment is usually organized in chemotherapy phases at experienced cancer centers, and it can also include stem cell transplant, targeted therapy and supportive care.
The Somerfelds chose Denver over hospitals in Seattle and Salt Lake City partly because of Children’s Hospital Colorado’s pediatric oncology reputation and partly because follow-up care could be handled closer to home through a partner hospital in Kalispell. It still meant repeated travel, time away from work and long stretches of uncertainty while Otto went through photopheresis and chemotherapy.
Kelsy Diekhans, whose own son went through pediatric leukemia in 2015, helped organize the Brave Like Otto benefit, scheduled for Saturday, June 27, at the Power Community Legion Hall. It will include a pulled-pork dinner, speeches and a silent auction.
East Helena had 1,944 residents in the 2020 Census, Lewis and Clark County had 70,973, and Power had just 177. Earlier support in East Helena included an Orange Out for Otto at a basketball game that raised more than $10,000, and an online fundraiser for the family had already topped $96,000 toward a $100,000 goal by the time of that event.
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