A Tiny Fighter’s Biggest Battle | Benjamin’s Fight Against a Rare Brain Tumor

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- No parent ever wants to learn their child has cancer, but when the possibility of it surfaces during pregnancy, it's additional weeks of waiting and worrying.

Kim Morgan, former managing editor at Woodlands Online, said her daughter Alyssa Hughes Eppler first learned something was wrong in the last few months of her pregnancy.

"Alyssa was undergoing regular ultrasounds when they noticed the baby's ventricles in his brain weren’t draining properly, which was leading to an increase in cerebrospinal fluid,” Morgan said. “It continued to increase to the point it was considered extreme. So the baby underwent a fetal MRI, and that's when they discovered a mass.”

Alyssa, a 2017 graduate of Klein Oak High School, said it was unknown what the mass was.

“It could have been a hemorrhage, missing brain matter, a tumor, or just some odd tissue that would go away as he continued developing,” she said. “We wouldn’t know until he was born.”

Benjamin Alan Eppler was born Aug. 8 and immediately underwent an MRI. The mass was indeed a tumor, and it was taking up about a third of the left hemisphere of his brain.

A biopsy revealed a diagnosis almost as rare as a baby even being born with brain cancer in the first place - an Infant-Type Hemispheric Glioma.

IHGs are uncommon, which has led to a lack of research, but a 2025 multi-institution and multi-national collaboration co-led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital affirmed that “making neurosurgical decisions at the time of diagnosis is difficult, not only because IHGs tend to be large and prone to bleeding, but also due to the patients’ extremely young age and low body weight.”

“Of course it’s scary,” said Alyssa’s husband Tom Eppler, originally from Plano TX. “We have a long road ahead of us, filled with medications, MRI’s, brain surgery and potentially radiation therapy.”

Benjamin requires daily gene-targeted medication to shrink the tumor, which he is able to take at home while under the care of oncologists and neurosurgeons at Dallas Medical City Children’s Hospital.

"These are the people who will save our baby," Alyssa said. “Each day, he continues to be our perfect little boy who is growing up to be big and strong.”

Meanwhile, Benjamin's favorite things are his mother's kisses, his father's shadow-puppet shows, and “wiggle time” in his crib.

“During my time at Woodlands Online, through many interviews and reporting on hundreds of stories, I learned quickly what a caring and compassionate community it is that we live in,” Morgan said. “Benjamin is my first grandchild. I never thought we would ever be one of those families reaching out for prayers and help.”

You can follow Benjamin’s journey on his GoFundMe page.