Bouncing Back

With 10 national titles to her name, twice as many state championships and a fierce determination to succeed, Morgan Rathke was well on her way to becoming a top-level gymnast. Then, in the fall of 2005, her priorities took a dramatic flip when doctors found a tumor on her brain. Suddenly, Morgan was faced with her greatest challenge ever—a competition she must win to save her own life.

Already a winner

Before her illness, Morgan moved through her days with what seemed like endless energy. Along with working out at the gymnastics academy four to five days a week and competing in meets on weekends, Morgan earned straight As at her middle school in Illinois. She was also a cheerleader and member of the track team. 

The youngest of four siblings, Morgan grew up in the gym. She started training at only 4 years old. Her older sisters, Kristin and Lauren, were also gymnasts. “At one time, I had all three girls competing at the same meets at the same time,” says their mother, Pam Rathke. Morgan’s sisters still use their gymnastics skills—Lauren as a high school cheerleader and Kristin as a college cheerleader and gymnastics instructor.

Looking back, Pam believes that all the physical training and can-do mindset Morgan acquired as a gymnast helped her daughter compete against her most formidable opponent.

Preparing for the meet

In early November 2005, Morgan started feeling dizzy during gymnastics practice. Pam took her to a specialist who thought Morgan had an inner ear problem. Despite treatment, she started having severe headaches and began vomiting.

Pam called the doctor’s office to explain Morgan’s new symptoms. They said, “Our treatment doesn’t cause that; she must have the flu.”

“After a week I told our regular doctor, ‘This is not the flu,’” Pam says. That doctor saw Morgan right away and scheduled an MRI for the following morning.

At 2 p.m. the doctor called Morgan’s father, David Rathke, and said, “You need to get Morgan to the hospital; we have a surgeon waiting. We found something on the MRI.”

Morgan was barely checked into her hospital room and her parents were in the hall, when the surgeon told Morgan, “You have a brain tumor.”

Morgan knew what that was but says, “I didn’t know what to think.”

“I know we were in shock,” Pam says. “I can’t imagine how she felt.”

Morgan had medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in children, and she needed immediate surgery to remove the growth. The Rathkes feel lucky that an experienced neurosurgeon happened to be in their small-town hospital that week. He performed the surgery but told the Rathke family that Morgan needed to go elsewhere for follow-up treatment.

Joining a new team

That night in the hospital, Pam could not sleep. At about 4 a.m., she turned on the television and started flipping channels. She came upon a St. Jude commercial. It showed actor and comedian Robin Williams asking a 13-year-old St. Jude patient what his next plans were. The boy said, “To be in the seventh grade.” At the time, Morgan was in the sixth grade and a few months from her 13th birthday. That St. Jude patient had survived the same kind of brain tumor.

Pam recalls, “A couple of hours later when the doctor came in, I said, ‘God wants us to be at St. Jude.’ I had never seen that commercial before, but I just knew that was where we were supposed to be.” The doctor agreed and made the phone call, referring Morgan to St. Jude.

A week later, the Rathke family arrived at the hospital. “You don’t know what to expect,” Pam says. “You are still in shock. We got here, and both my husband and I felt better. We felt relief, like a weight was lifted off our shoulders.”

Competing at a new level

Morgan doesn’t remember much about arriving at St. Jude. She had many complications from surgery. She could not walk, write, use her left arm or talk much. But Pam remembers, “From the time we walked in the door, we heard, ‘Dr. Gajjar is the best; you’re going to love him.’ And we did from the minute we met him.”

Amar Gajjar, MD, is co-chair of the St. Jude Oncology department, director of the Neuro-Oncology Division and co-leader of the St. Jude Brain Tumor Program.

“Morgan comes from a very loving family,” Gajjar says. “She was upbeat and positive about her therapy, which really helped the staff and her recovery.”

Morgan’s treatment involved six weeks of radiation therapy to her head and spine with heavier radiation at the tumor site. Then she had four cycles of high-dose chemotherapy. After each dose of chemo, she received some of her own bone marrow stem cells to help her body recover faster from the treatments.

All-around good sport

The radiation was not too bad, Morgan says. She was able to go home for a few weeks in February before starting chemotherapy. Along with physical therapy and occupational therapy during that break, she met with her gymnastics coach about four times a week. He had her running; climbing the rope; and doing push-ups, pull-ups, and a few minor tricks on the bar and the floor.

“Chemo kind of knocked her back down,” Pam says, “but she hasn’t stopped working on getting her strength back.”

What does Morgan think about all that has happened to her? “I just try not to think about it that much,” she says.

Pam praises her efforts. “Morgan has been amazing. She has not complained through the whole thing. She just works harder and harder. I think she just tries to go beyond what has happened."

Morgan has what her coach calls “stick-to-it-ness.”

“She was always that way with all her hard gymnastics tricks—never giving up, just trying again and again and again until she got it,” Pam says. “I really think gymnastics made a difference in her attitude toward this illness and her recovery.”

Loving supporters

Another critical factor in Morgan’s recovery was the support she received from many people. Her family and coaches called almost every day. At one point, she was feeling down because she had to miss her brother Brian’s high school graduation. Her coach drove eight hours to Memphis for a daylong cheer-up visit.

At least twice a week, she received uplifting cards, letters and packages from her Chemo Angels, which are similar to pen pals.

Despite having only about 800 residents, her hometown held a successful walk-a-thon in Morgan’s name to benefit St. Jude.

“My friends made special T-shirts for the event,” she says. “They sent me one that had ‘Our Hero’ on it.”

The gymnastics community offered support through St. Jude fund-raisers and words of encouragement. At one meet that Morgan had to miss, all the kids wrote messages to her on paper stars. They posted them at the meet and afterward sent all the greetings to Morgan. She even received a hand-written letter from U.S. Olympic medalist Courtney Kupets.

For many years, Peoria, Illinois, has held a gymnastics meet to benefit the St. Jude affiliate there. The Rathke sisters competed in that meet for years before Morgan became a patient. This year, Morgan was one of the poster kids for the event.

As for St. Jude supporters, Morgan reeled off a long list of staff members who have helped her. The ones who seem to stand out most are Gajjar, Kim Kasow, DO, and St. Jude schoolteacher Erin Brick. “Erin and Morgan hit it off right away because Erin was a gymnast, too,” Pam says. “Erin understood what Morgan was going through and what she was missing.”

Brick was a member of the Penn State University gymnastics team in the early 1990s. Morgan was quiet until they found that mutual interest, but Brick says with a smile, “She’s definitely not quiet now.” Brick was impressed with how hard Morgan worked on schoolwork and physical therapy throughout her treatments. “There’s no stopping her,” Brick contends. “She worked right through everything.”

New challenges lie ahead

In July, Morgan showed no signs of her disease, so that wonderful day had finally come for her to travel home.

Soft-spoken yet mature for her age, Morgan already has lofty goals. Even before the tumor, she was talking about going to college to become a doctor or nurse. This experience cemented that idea.

“Maybe someday I’ll come back and work at St. Jude,” she says.

For now, Morgan just wants to get back in shape for gymnastics and start competing again. Like most 13-year-olds, she wants to hang out with her friends and chat with them on the Internet.

“I think something like this changes your perspective,” Pam says. “Before, Morgan was very serious about competing and winning. Now, she just wants to get back to gymnastics and being with her friends. Just doing it because she loves it—that’s what really matters now.”

At first, Morgan will return to St. Jude every three months, so the staff can monitor her recovery and make sure her tumor does not return.

“Dr. Gajjar wants to see her cartwheel down the hallway,” Pam laughs. “That will be no problem when you come back—right, girl?” Morgan just nods and smiles in her quiet, confident way.

Reprinted from Promise magazine, Autumn 2006.


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