In April, Hunsaker, 39, graduated from Weber State University with an associate degree in applied science and an emphasis in radiography.

“I wanted to go into the field that helped save my son’s life so I could help others in the same way,” she said. “I didn’t know how important medical imaging was until my son got sick.”

Hunsaker’s son, Brigham, was just two months shy of his second birthday when his parents noticed he didn’t want to walk as much.

“He would tremble and shake,” she said. “At first I thought maybe he had low blood sugar, but things kept getting worse and then he just wouldn’t walk at all.”

Brigham was loaded into the car and taken to Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital where doctors performed an MRI scan, which showed a tumor just above his right lung. He was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer that starts in early nerve cells, most often found in an embryo or fetus.

But that wasn’t all doctors discovered. Brigham also had a rare autoimmune condition called opsoclonus-myoclonus-ataxia syndrome (OMAS), which can be an immune reaction to the neuroblastoma.

“They told us 1 in 1 million children are diagnosed with OMAS each year, so it’s very rare, but it’s also a correlation with the neuroblastoma,” Hunsaker said. “We were so lucky the doctors at Primary Children’s knew what it even was.”

Brigham had surgery to remove the tumor, but doctors couldn’t get it all because it would have affected some of the toddler’s motor skills.

“So they left the rest of it in and started treatment with a smaller dose of chemotherapy to help combat the autoimmune disorder,” she said. “He had to go back for several treatments and get a regular CT scan.”

Throughout the first year, Hunsaker said the tumor that remained in her son’s body remained stable — and then it disappeared.

“We went for his next scan and the tumor was just gone. It had completely disappeared. There wasn’t even any scar tissue left behind,” she said. “After about another year, the OMAS subsided and he’s been good ever since. The doctors had nothing to attribute it to. It was simply a miracle.”

Today, Brigham is a healthy, happy 8-year-old and still shows no sign of either disease.

“He’s doing fantastic and is just a smart little boy,” said his mother. “I don’t think he remembers much of anything that happened. He does have a little bit of anxiety with needles and doctor appointments, but it’s nothing terrible at all.”

Hunsaker said because her son was diagnosed through medical imaging, she decided she wanted to go back to school and focus in that direction.

“I definitely believe getting the early diagnosis was really important, and the more I learned about imaging, the more I wanted to teach others about the difference it can make in their lives and in their health,” she said.