Unforgettable Audrey

By Becky McCauley

According to Whitney Boozer, her sweet daughter, Audrey, is “unforgettable.” The 7-year-old loves dressing up and being “fancy.” Her favorite outfit is a little white dress with red roses paired with sparkly jewelry and red patent leather Mary Jane shoes.

“We were on our way to Arkansas Children’s Northwest for a chemo infusion, and Audrey was wearing her dress with the roses,” says Whitney. “Someone stopped her and said, ‘I love your dress.’ And she said, ‘Oh, this is my everyday dress.’”

Beyond fashion, Audrey loves her two cats, Petey and Meadow. She also enjoys staging soap operas with her toy animals, making art, dancing and taking swimming lessons.

What she does not love is being outside and getting messy.

“Audrey went to a summer camp, and we were told everybody needed to wear tennis shoes, t-shirts and shorts. But there’s Audrey in her fancy dress and Mary Janes,” remembers Whitney with a smile. “She just barely made it through the week.”

When Everything Changed

In April 2025, Audrey started developing headaches. By Memorial Day, she was vomiting regularly and started losing her balance. Her doctor sent her to Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW) in Springdale for testing.

The results were frightening.

An MRI showed a tumor growing in Audrey’s brain. She and her mother were immediately flown on an Angel One helicopter to Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock, where Audrey was admitted into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Audrey’s dad, Brock, followed his family to Little Rock by car.

Whitney was touched by the greeting she and her daughter received. “From the moment we arrived in the PICU, the doctors were amazing. All the nurses were wonderful. They just kind of surrounded me. One of them took me to get food and showed me around to different places in the hospital. One of the doctors even brought me some dry shampoo.”

Audrey’s care team determined the tumor needed to be removed as soon as possible. Audrey was taken into surgery the next day. Whitney and Brock are grateful for the exceptional care their daughter received.

“Audrey’s doctor was excellent. The anesthesiologists were excellent,” says Whitney. “The nurse who was watching over Audrey during her surgery was also named Audrey. That gave me so much comfort to know another Audrey was watching over my Audrey. And the little things — the check-ins every hour to say she was doing well — it all meant so much.”

Audrey’s surgery was successful, but she developed a common complication. Posterior Fossa syndrome can cause a child to be temporarily mute or to suffer severely reduced speech. It can also cause poor balance, low muscle tone and severe emotional fluctuations and mood swings.

Whitney and Brock’s precious daughter went silent.

“We hadn’t talked to our child since before the MRI. She never really woke up from surgery,” says Whitney. “We wanted our child back … we were just missing her so much.”

While the parents were dealing with their daughter’s heartbreaking condition, they got some bad news and some good news.

Bad News and Good News

The bad news: Audrey had a malignant tumor in her brain called medulloblastoma. She had cancer.

The good news: The tumor had been 100% removed and had not spread. Audrey’s prognosis was promising.

For 77 days, Audrey and her parents remained at ACH. Radiation treatments and physical and occupational therapy became a part of their lives. “The rehab team was excellent,” says Whitney. “They were all so faithful to help Audrey, and we could tell they really cared.”

Whitney remembers all the people and programs that have helped make their time in the hospital so much better. Like the Child Life specialist who made a big, beautiful poster with different feelings on it to help Audrey find her emotions. And their hospital social worker, who communicates regularly and helps coordinate hotel stays and “a thousand little things.” And the music therapist, who, on the first night Whitney and Brock held their daughter in their arms after surgery, played a song by one of Audrey’s favorite bands, making everyone in the room emotional.

The Most Wonderful Thing

In mid-September during her radiation treatments, that special day finally came: Audrey said her first words in months! Whitney and Brock were overjoyed.

“Oh, my goodness … it was the most wonderful thing,” says Whitney. “I’ll never forget the morning it happened. All the nurses and techs and everybody, we were all crying and so excited. It was unfortunately the same day her hair started coming out from the cancer treatment. It was hard to see her losing her hair, but we were just so overjoyed that she was talking.”

After those two-and-a-half months in the hospital, Audrey was finally released. She still travels to ACH with her parents every few weeks for chemo treatments, and Whitney says their visits are like coming home.

“All the nurses come by and see us and want to talk to Audrey. It’s just like family. In many ways, the people in the hospital understand our story much more than our friends, because they’ve been with us and have seen what we’ve been through. It’s such a special bond.”

In a voice her parents worried they’d never hear again, unforgettable Audrey sums it up best: “I love this hospital!