Sentinel The Shorewood
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Vol. 18 No. 18
Voyager Media Publications • www.shorewoodsentinel.com
LIGHTING THE FIRE
SUPPORTERS RALLY AROUND FRIEND RECOVERING FROM BRAIN SURGERY By Robin Ambrosia Staff reporter
C
ROBIN AMBROSIA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Kenny Zabel (left) enjoys a moment with his younger brother, Bobby, and parents, Ken and Linda, at Sunday’s fundraiser to assist with his high medical costs at The Crowd Around Me in Shorewood.
oncerns for young adults on Super Bowl Sunday should be limited to whether there is enough beer and snacks for the party. But 24-year-old Kenny Zabel’s 2013 Super Bowl Sunday started off with a headache; then ended with life- changing news. A 2007 Minooka High School graduate, Zabel woke up that day with a headache that quickly turned excruciating. Zabel’s mother, Linda, took him to St. Joseph Medical Center’s emergency room in Joliet. After an emergency brain surgery within 12 hours, Zabel, his father, Ken, brother, Bobby, 19, and Linda were told he had a rare, fast-growing brain tumor. In early March, Zabel underwent a second neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Neurology and Neurosurgery center. “They were able to remove almost 95 percent of the tumor,” Kenny Zabel said. “What they were not able to remove is considered root-like, for which See FRIEND, page 2