Thursday, May 10, 2007

Derek Fisher's Daughter

Utah Jazz guard Derek Fisher had a busy on Wednesday.
In the morning he was at New York's Presbyterian Hospital with his wife, Candace.
Their 10-month old daughter, Tatum had been diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a rare cancerous tumor of the retina, and the doctors were rushing to get her into surgery.
Last week they noticed a green glow in Tatum's eye and took her to the pediatrician. Seven days later, she was having life-saving surgery which Fisher said couldn't have waited another day.
It seems like Tatum will be ok and with a few more treatments doctors expect she won't lose even lose her eye or the vision it.
And later that evening they said the Fishers, including Tatum could go home.
So they flew back to Utah and Candace gave Derek permission to go to the game.
The Jazz knew of Tatum's illness and allowed Fisher to miss Game 1 of the Warriors series. They could have replaced Fisher on the roster for the series not knowing if he'd play at all.
On his ride from the airport to the game he heard on the radio the starting point guard Deron Williams was in foul trouble, and his backup Dee Brown got hurt. Andrei Kirilenko (AK-47) had to man the point.
The Fisher arrived at the game, and checked right into the game. Then he was taken out and took his time warm up on the bike, got a neck massage, and re-enter the game.
Fisher hit a couple shots in the overtime then used his postgame interview with Pam Oliver to tell everyone about the ordeal he'd just been through. Previously only Jazz personnel knew.
He told Pam Oliver and everyone watching to get their kids checked, to send them to the opthamologist, because he almost lost his little girl.
I'm glad he didn't.

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