Family of Gravely Ill Korean Boy Finds Hope, Compassion in L.A.

Dong-Uk Kim’s parents came to Los Angeles 11 days ago as their last hope for saving the 10-year-old Korean child’s life.

The boy has a tumor the size of an adult’s fist between his kidneys. After five futile months of chemotherapy in Seoul, doctors said they could do no more. So the Kims set out for America. But now, even American doctors have told them that the fourth-grader’s chance for survival is nil.

Still, Su-Tea and Hyon-Ja Kim remain hopeful. Devout Catholics, they believe miracles can happen.

They are more convinced of that than ever because of the outpouring of love and help from Korean Americans in Los Angeles who have given them money, a place to stay and food. But the odds are not in his favor.

To save Dong-Uk’s life, the couple sold their Seoul home in 1997 and traveled to New York that October with more than $110,000 in cash to seek “the best cancer treatment” possible.

Dong-Uk has neuroblastoma, a relatively rare childhood cancer that is among the deadliest. It strikes about 100 children in Korea and about 500 to 600 children in the United States every year.

In the past 14 months, the boy and his parents have been shuttling between Seoul and New York.

After five operations, followed by post-surgery complications that required a colostomy and bone marrow biopsies at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Kims were told earlier this month that the boy could expect to live just a few more months.

Doctors recommended that they return to Seoul and try to concentrate on his quality of life. But the Kims could not bring themselves to accept that.

“If it had been my wife or I--I’ve lived 40 years--we can go whenever God calls us,” said Su-Tea Kim. “But our boy, he’s only 10. He hasn’t even had a chance to bloom.”

So the family eventually came to Los Angeles to seek help at Childrens Hospital, even though they didn’t know anyone here and do not speak English.

While the Kims were in New York, they had learned on the Internet that Childrens Hospital Los Angeles had an experimental program for youngsters with neuroblastoma that involved administering an experimental drug called BSO--short for buthionine sulfoximine.

The Kims had one telephone contact--a Korean American named Steve Oh, who does interpreting and translation work in Koreatown--and the knowledge that Los Angeles has the largest concentration of ethnic Koreans in the United States.

Oh met them at the airport.

“What I thought would be a one-shot thing to help them with paperwork became a mission,” he said. “When I saw how much help the family needed, I couldn’t walk away.”

Oh said he was overcome with the couple’s honesty and courage.

That’s the way other Korean Americans who have met the Kims say they feel too.

As for the couple, they are overwhelmed with gratitude.

“We are grateful to the American doctors and nurses who are so kind to us even though we are of a different race,” Su-Tea Kim said. “We are grateful to Koreans who have given us their heart and prayers.”

In the short time they have been in Los Angeles, the Kims say they have already witnessed many small miracles.

“That our boy is being treated by such expert and kind doctors and nurses at Childrens Hospital is a miracle--an answer to our prayers,” Su-Tea Kim said.

On Saturday afternoon, after nearly a week of chemotherapy, Dong-Uk was discharged from the hospital to live in nearby residential quarters with his parents and older brother, Gue-Dong, 12.

His school has allowed Gue-Dong to miss classes since September so he could be with his brother.

“I hope the chemo I got will shrink the tumor, so I can have surgery to remove it,” Dong-Uk said as he waited to be discharged. Wearing an aqua hospital gown and a Santa hat, Dong-Uk said he is impressed by American hospitals because they are “so big” and there are “so many doctors.”

Gue-Dong, an honor student who hopes to become a scientist, said: “I pray all the time that my brother will get better and we can return to Seoul and attend school together.”

With mounting medical bills, the family has used up the money they brought from Seoul. Their relatives, who have been helping them, have also depleted their financial resources.

Korean Americans who learned about their plight have come to their aid.

Staffers and friends of the Korean Christian Broadcasting Network--KCBN-FM (93.5)--in the Mid-Wilshire district gave them $3,000. An additional $800 in donations has arrived in the last several days.

The Rev. Chul-Woo Nam, a Southern Baptist preacher who is president of KCBN, makes sure that the Kims get a nutritious lunch every day.

Oh, whose persistent pleas helped get Dong-Uk treatment at Childrens Hospital, visits them every day. He sits in on meetings with doctors and interprets.

“I’ve come to love that boy,” Oh said. “I’ve got two boys myself. I want so very much to see Dong-Uk live.”

Despite the long ordeal, Dong-Uk looks amazingly healthy.

“My wife is always feeding him,” Su-Tea Kim said. “He has to be strong to withstand the treatment.”

Kim thinks nothing of walking 90 minutes to Koreatown to buy kimbap--seaweed rolls--which Dong-Uk loves.

Now, even strangers are bringing kimbap to the boy.

“None of this is by accident,” Kim said. “I believe God engineers circumstances and God is building these bridges to help us.”

The Kims admit to having lived through a crisis of faith after they learned about their son’s condition in early 1997.

“For a time we were angry with God, even though both my wife and I have been Christians since we were children. I asked God, ‘How can this be? How can my boy get stricken with a disease that strikes one in a million?’ ”

But they say they no longer have doubts.

“Even in this situation, we have found moments of happiness in many good people--strangers who have opened their hearts to us,” Hyon-Ja Kim said.