Parents encourage brain tissue donation after young son dies from rare pediatric brain cancer

By Sarah Schulte via WLS logo
Sunday, September 25, 2022 11:30PM

CHICAGO (WLS) — Owen Petrzelka was a typical 5-year-old boy, full of energy.

“He was very rambunctious, he was very kind a bit of an old soul,” said Owen’s mother, Amanda Shaker.

“Every night, it would be building forts in his room or wrestling me on the living room floor before bedtime,” added Owen’s father, Adam Petrzelka.

Then, in, April of 2020, his parents noticed he began acting differently.

“He started exhibiting peculiar behavior where he was running into the wall, he had a hard time going up the stairs,” Amanda said. Read More