Now, three years later, Maarten’s son is doing relatively well. “He is now 14 years old and is slowly starting to reach puberty. “After carefully building up and practicing together a lot, he manages to cycle to school and back himself, a total of 20 kilometers. We look ahead again. But it also has many consequences. Because the cancer was in his liver, it has a direct impact on his endocrine system. And the incredibly heavy chemotherapy he received may also have consequences for his heart in the future. For the next 20 years, he is still stuck with a checkup that will not be just once every five years, the oncologists have already said.”
Maarten does not understand Kuipers’ decision at all: ‘Without a children’s heart center in Utrecht, my son would not have lived’
