Jr. Blues to host annual 'Brendan’s Buddies' Night

March 5, 2018

On March 10th this weekend, the NA3HL’s 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!