Tzipporah.Benavraham@hnews.fidonet.org (Tzipporah Benavraham) (06/28/91)
Index Number: 16490
06/17 05:57 EDT V0464
CHICAGO -- An obese, cancer-stricken teen-ager who
attended his graduation on a stretcher after winning a
battle to be there died the next day.
Jim Stan, 18, who had an inoperable brain tumor, died
Saturday at Holy Cross Hospital.
"He told me ... that he'd reached his goal, and I guess
he did," said nurse Doris Johnson. "He said he was tired and
he wanted everything over with."
One day earlier he had received a standing ovation from
his 240 classmates when he picked up his diploma from
Washington High School.
A month ago Principal Reginald Brown had banned Stan from
the ceremony, saying his presence would be disruptive. But
the principal relented after the ban was widely reported and
students protested.
"He was a really nice, sweet guy," classmate Paco Paolone
said. "We all wanted him to graduate, but we knew in our
hearts that he wasn't going to live long."
Mary Ann Stan said her son weighed 250 pounds and had
gained weight because of cancer medication. But his nurse
estimated he was 400 pounds.
Stan stopped going to classes two years ago after the
tumor was diagnosed. Doctors said he would be dead in six
months. But he continued learning, getting nearly daily
tutoring at his bedside. He hadn't been out of bed since
December.
Last month, in the midst of Stan's fight to attend
commencement, his mother said her son was devastated at
the thought of not going.
"This is what the kid has been living for all this time.
He's already outlived what the doctors gave him," she
said then.
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