Vancouver 12-year-old loses battle with leukemia

Steven Fryberger, 12, died Wednesday at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, where he had fought leukemia since February. The boy’s parents, Dennis and Pamela Fryberger, and other family members were by his side at the end.

In November, the Frybergers received the gift of a refurbished 2005 Volkswagen Jetta station wagon from a national charitable organization called Recycled Rides, so they would have reliable transportation for their frequent trips to Doernbecher from their home in Orchards.

Steven took a turn for the worse shortly before the family was presented with the car on November 23, putting his planned December trip to Disney World, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, on indefinite hold. He never went home again. But Pamela Fryberger said Thursday, “We were able to go more often” to visit Steven in his final weeks.

Doctors were treating Steven for a condition called “graft-versus-host disease,” in which newly transplanted bone marrow was attacking his body. Then a fungal disease attacked his lungs and liver, and his condition worsened.

“He just got weaker and weaker,” Pamela Fryberger said. “He made us promise, no more tubes. We just made him comfortable, so he didn’t have any pain.”

Steven had been an active kid before his illness, an avid skateboarder and a seventh-grader at Covington Middle School.

His mother said Steven rode in the new Jetta once and also got to make a final trip to Toys R Us. “He saved up his walking,” she said, “because he knew it would tire him out.”

Dennis Fryberger delivers The Columbian and The Oregonian. Pamela Fryberger works at Fred Meyer. Steven also is survived by his sister, Denise, and an aunt, Sally Fryberger, who helped care for him at Doernbecher. Final arrangements were pending Thursday.