MARK YOUR CALENDARS: BRENDAN’S BUDDIES GAME THIS WEEKEND

Mar 5, 2018

On March 10th, the St. Louis Jr. Blues face off against their long
time rivals, the Wisconsin Whalers in a NA3HL  matchup at 7:00 pm at the
Affton Ice Rink.  Although a very important hockey game will take
place, the Jr. Blues will be playing for a great cause, their #1 fan
Brendan Staub and the “Brendan’s Buddies” Night at the Jr. Blues.

Brendan is a former Affton American and the son of the Jr. Blues goalie
coach, Mark Staub. When he was just 8 ½ years old, Brendan  suffered
from major seizures that doctors explained were caused by bilateral
calcifications on his brain.  The doctors said the calcifications had
stopped growing and with medications Brendan remained seizure free
from May 2004 through August 2004.  When his seizures returned in
October 2004, an MRI was conducted to make sure the calcifications were
not growing: they weren’t.  Instead it showed Brendan had a rapid
growing tumor in his right temporal lobe of his brain.  The tumor was
removed immediately and the surgery was a success!  They were told
that Brendan’s seizures would get better.   Instead, the seizures were
getting worse, Brendan would suffer up to 50 seizures a day.  Brendan
had been diagnosed with multiple diseases,  all were wrong.

In July of 2006 Shriners Hospital claimed that Brendan’s
calcifications were still growing.  In November of that year, Brendan
suffered a stroke like episode that put him in a 3 day seizure.  Since
then, Brendan suffered four more stoke like episodes that has affected
his vision.  These stroke like episodes have occurred in his occipital
lobe of his brain that controls his vision.  In January of 2007
Brendan had his first appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  He arrived in Minnesota with very poor vision, 20/500.
The doctors had only given Brendan two years to live.  Brendan’s brain
had been taken over from an undiagnosed white matter disease.

The doctors knew that they had to do something fast and they had to be
aggressive.  They went with an experimental drug (IVIg immunuogloblun)
for Brendan.  It worked!  Brendan has been taking several trips a year
to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN looking for answers to his medical
problems.  To this date, Brendan’s illness has not been diagnosed.
Brendan still receives these very costly IVIg treatments every two
weeks to keep him alive.

The Jr. Blues will be wearing a special edition jersey for the game.
The Jr. Blues will donate $10 for every goal scored by the Jr. Blues
and encourage the fans in attendance to make a donation for every goal
scored by the home team!