Wes Connors

Wes Connors was one of Derek's hopeless case surgeries.

Touring Battlefields
Because of the pain caused by his tumor, Wes was being homeschooled by his mother. They went to 18 different battlefields in a year. They were planning to go to Pearl Harbor next.

Consultation with Derek
Wes was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma. Because she was concerned about him knowing about his condition, his mother didn't tell him about his tumor. However, he overheard some doctors talking about it, but he hid it from his mother that he knew. Eight different surgeons, including the tumor board at Cleveland Clinic said his tumor was inoperable. Wes's mother, Lynn, took him to Derek in the hopes that he'd be able to operate. He said he would try, but warned her that there was only a 5% chance he'd be successful. Once he opened Wes up, he discovered that there was no way he could operate without killing Wes, so he closed without doing anything.

After the surgery, Lynn told Wes that the surgery wasn't as hard as they thought it would be, but Wes figured out that they didn't actually do anything.

Familial
Wes' father died when he was 2. His mother was very protective of him, to the point where she didn't tell him that he had a tumor. When he found out about it anyway, he didn't tell her that he knew, because he said that the only thing that made her happy was thinking that he didn't know about his tumor.

Notes and Trivia

 * He was 11 years old at the time of his hospitalization.
 * Fort Ticonderoga was his favorite battlefield.
 * A surgeon in Boston compared removing his tumor to dismantling a bomb with your eyes closed and one in Chicago said it was patching a dam with gum.