Written by Sandro’s family
Sandro, a Brookline (MA) High School 2020 graduate and college athlete, was in pain when he returned to Ohio in the fall of 2023 to begin his senior year at Ohio Wesleyan University. His wrestling team’s trainer quickly scheduled an MRI. Seeing the results, the MRI technician escorted him immediately to the ER, and his mom, Jennifer, caught the next flight there, just in time to meet with the hospital’s neurosurgeon.
The doctor confirmed that Sandro had a tumor in his upper spinal cord and told Jennifer that only two surgeons in the country would be able to handle such a difficult operation — one of them at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, near the family’s home in Brookline. The doctor also urged Sandro and Jennifer to act quickly, saying that the tumor needed to come out within the next 10 days.
A few days later, Sandro returned home, and he and the family met with the neurosurgeon at MGH. Sandro was admitted immediately, and on September 15, underwent a complex and lengthy (9+ hours) but successful surgery to remove what the surgeon observed to be an aggressive tumor.
Biopsy results revealed the tumor to be a Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG, mutation H3K27M), a very rare, aggressive, and malignant type of tumor for which there is no well-established effective treatment.
Though Sandro was able to move his arms and a leg post-surgery, what turned out to be a blood clot discovered at the site of his surgery nine days later had begun to affect his lower body and required emergency surgery to remove. This left Sandro unable to walk and with limited sensation or function below the chest.
Along with his rehabilitation, Sandro underwent radiation therapy. Sandro’s age and disability excluded him from participating in clinical trials. Despite dealing with the grueling side effects and complications of daily chemotherapy for seven months, Sandro persisted in working out four times a week.
Sandro approached his illness the same way he faced an opponent on the wrestling mat, with unyielding determination and courage.
We will miss Sandro’s sharp intelligence, fierce loyalty, playful sense of humor, generous spirit, bone-crushing hugs, and handsome face.
Sandro was an extraordinary young man, and we know he is watching over us now with great love and compassion. Sandro taught us many things over the past year and a half: to stay in the present moment and to respond with love, dignity, and grace to life’s challenges.
After 18 months, Sandro passed away on March 15, 2025. He donated his body to Gift from a Child and selected research labs working to find a treatment for DMG/DIPG.
