The Phillip DeVito Foundation
The Phillip DeVito Foundation is committed to assisting families who are experiencing hardship or a serious illness by providing resources to help meet the needs and the needs of their families.
In January of 1988, at 9 years of age, Phillip began experiencing headaches. His parents took him to his doctor who thought he had a sinus infection. After a week, the headaches were not improving. Phillip was taken to Rainbow’s Babies and Children’s Hospital for a CT scan. The scan showed a couple of problems. The first was hydrocephalus (water on the brain). The second was a tumor on the pineal gland located directly in the center of the brain. The tumor was blocking the fluid from running down his spine. This block was causing fluid to build in his brain. The fluid had to be drained immediately. Phillip underwent surgery that day to relieve the pressure in the brain. The doctor’s placed a shunt to relieve the pressure. Within the next seven months, Phil would endure two more brain surgeries. The first surgery was to biopsy the tumor and the second to remove the tumor. Both operations were very serious since they were dealing with operation on the center of the brain. The surgeries were successful.
Phillip never complained about anything. He was very brave. Phil was not able to walk for the first seven days following the operation. He asked the doctors when he would be able to return to play football again. He played flag football in the City of Willowick for three years before his surgeries. He loved it!! The doctors told him that they would have to get him walking, but didn’t know if he’d ever play football again. Phil told them he would play that year. He told the doctors he had eight weeks before the season started and he would be ready. Phil’s dad, Sam DeVito, was the coach of the team and very afraid to let him play. He was still missing a part of his skull and had a permanent shunt in his head. His doctors said he would be all right to play as log as he wore a special helmet during practice and the games. Not only did Phil play, but started the first game and caught the game winning two point conversion.
There were setbacks along his recovery. Cancerous cells were found resulting in five more weeks of radiation treatments. This did not stop Phil from going to school everyday and playing the sport he loved, flag football.
Phillip’s cancer returned in 1995. Phillip battled through more surgery and treatments for two more years. Phillip lost his battle to cancer on December 21, 1997.
In memory of Phillip Michael DeVito
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