IDAHO FALLS — Amanda Cook knew something was wrong when her daughter Lily fell one day and wasn’t acting like her normal self. She said it wouldn’t usually be a big deal except for the fact that there were “lacerations” on Lily’s backside. 

She and her husband, Steven, live in Idaho Falls with Lily, 2, and Jack, 6. During Thanksgiving, Lily was dancing around.

“She fell. The very next day, after she fell from just standing, she had this large bruise. We got X-rays, but nothing could tell us what was going on,” Amanda explained. “She was tired. She complained that her butt hurt. She couldn’t sit down.”

On Dec. 18, Lily’s pediatrician decided to order a CT scan. It turns out, she had a tumor behind her tailbone and was diagnosed with stage 4 sacrococcygeal cancer, which has metastasized to her lungs. According to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital online, sacrococcygeal teratoma (SCT), is a tumor that forms on a fetus’s tailbone.

Amanda said she did prenatal ultrasounds, but the tumor was hidden. There isn’t a history of this in her family. 

Lily started chemotherapy on Dec. 22 at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City and has been a trooper. Doctors and medical staff have given Lily a good prognosis. 

“She is pretty brave,” Amanda said of her daughter. “Now that she is responding well to chemo, we think, because she can sit on her bum now, and she’s not complaining, and she has a ton more energy. Believe it or not … she’s flourishing.”

It’s estimated that Lily could be on chemo for at least six to nine months. Every three weeks, she needs a round of five days of chemo. The Cook family will come home to Idaho for a short time, and then they’ll go back to Utah again. 

Through all of this, the community has shown an outpouring of love. Many people know the family. 

“Everybody loves little Lily. She meets a lot of people. We are very social butterflies, and she has just lit up a lot of people’s world, so it’s pretty cool to see how she has impacted so many other families and kids,” Amanda said. 

Amanda’s sister created an online GoFundMe with an $8,000 goal. As of Thursday afternoon, it had raised over $6,000. 

“We have meals from our neighbors every day. The support has been amazing,” Amanda said. “The way the community has helped us has been so incredible, including our jobs. The lives that we have touched have definitely given back in some way or another.”

Jodi Price is a close friend of Amanda and Steven. She has helped organize a “Love for Lily” benefit dinner and auction on Jan. 24 at the Westbank in Idaho Falls. She wanted to help them during this challenging time. 

“Amanda is a nurse, and she is going to have to take time off work along with Steven, who works out of the INL. So they are going to be looking for a little bit of extra help financially. Just any support that anybody can give … prayers or good thoughts,” Price told EastIdahoNews.com. 

The event will include a pasta dinner, a raffle auction and live auction. All proceeds will benefit Lily’s care. You can buy tickets here.

“They are the sweetest family you will ever meet. They are just the kindest souls. Anybody that knows Steven and Amanda knows little Lily and Jack. They would just do anything for anybody,” Price said. “It’s a terrible thing that happened to good people.”

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BIZ BUZZ

AMMON

Founder of Idaho Falls Pediatrics looks back on 25 years of operation

AMMON – Inside the Quidditch room, one of dozens of themed spaces in the 14,000-square-foot castle at 3067 Eagle Drive in Ammon where Idaho Falls Pediatrics does business, Dr. Ron Porter reflects on the company’s 25 years of operation.

The 59-year-old Idaho Falls man founded the practice in 2000 off Sunnyside and Holmes Avenue and was its sole physician early on. Today, he’s one of five doctors who meet daily with patients, and it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life.

“I like to see parents enjoying bringing their kids (to the office),” Porter tells EastIdahoNews.com. “I like to be able to help that enjoyment. When they’re stressed about an illness or something that’s going on with their development, I love to relieve that stress.”

Porter says celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary seems a bit unreal. He’s looking forward to celebrating with the community in some way, the details of which have not been finalized.

He couldn’t be happier about practicing medicine in eastern Idaho, and he’s amazed at how much they’ve grown over the years.

It all began in a little building off Sunnyside and Holmes Avenue in Idaho Falls on Jan. 2, 2000. Porter started the practice alone and started seeing patients.

He had graduated from medical school six years earlier and joined an existing practice for several years.

The decision to open his own pediatric clinic stemmed from his love of kids.

“In med school, I always enjoyed the rotations where there were kids involved,” Porter says. “When I did my OB-GYN rotation, we were delivering babies, and I was loving it. That moment when the baby is born, and you still need to be taking care of Mom, I just wanted to be with the baby. That’s when it dawned on me (to go into pediatrics).”

He was the sole physician at Idaho Falls Pediatrics for about 18 months before Dr. Scott Smith came on board. Together, they doubled the clinic’s workload.

Then in 2004, Dr. Joseph Moore became the third partner in the business.

The need for more space prompted them to move to a building on Coronado several years later.

“We were in that office for quite a while, and Dr. Mitchell Storts joined us over there,” Porter says.

Eventually, they added a building that resembles a schoolhouse on the west side of town when the Coronado building became inadequate.

Continued growth led to the development of the Eagle Drive location in Ammon. They broke ground on the building in 2019. It was completed in January the following year and opened in February.

RELATED | Idaho Falls Pediatrics opening new office in Ammon next month

Its unique design was intended to make going to the doctor fun for kids.

“We’ve always had murals on the wall and tried to make it kid friendly. We’ve gotten a little more creative with each building that we’ve done,” says Porter.

A fifth doctor, Dr. Ty Webb, joined the practice when the Ammon building opened in 2020. A sixth doctor is joining the business later this year.

Porter is grateful for the community’s support over the years and looks forward to continue serving patients in eastern Idaho.

“Our goal is just to provide good care for kids and help parents with those growing, developing children,” he says. “We love the community and it’s been a pleasure serving it.”

Idaho Falls Pediatrics is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday with a 6 p.m. closing time on Saturday.

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