Tom Sheffield, Bone Tumor and Leg Surgery

There were two boys in the Bountiful Stake that had bone tumors in their legs
about the same time. One was Greg Hart, whose tumor was cancerous, and the
other was Tom Sheffield, whose tumor was not cancerous.

Tom wrote the following about his experience:

My family moved into our home at 497 East 200 North in Bountiful in 1960 when
I was eleven years old. To earn money, during the summer of 1962, I got a job
picking cherries for Mr. Delmar Duncan, a member of our ward (Bountiful 3rd
Ward). I received two cents for each pound of cherries I picked. On the afternoon
of June 25, 1962, when I was thirteen years old, I walked down to Brother
Duncan’s house to get a ride to Centerville where the cherry orchards were. While
waiting for other boys to come, a couple of my friends and I went next door to see
Larry Tolman. As we were leaving Larry’s house, someone yelled, “The last one in
the truck is a rotten egg!” We all dashed across the lawn and into Brother Duncan’s
yard. His pickup truck was in the driveway. We all headed for the truck and as I
grabbed on to the back end and was pulling myself up, I slipped. I heard something
snap. I yelled to my friends that I had broken my leg. Two of my friends carefully
took me in the back yard and put me in a chair. Brother Duncan came out and put a
wooden splint on both sides of my leg. About that time, Mrs. Margaret Schmidt
came driving down the street. One of the boys flagged her down and they put me in
the back of her station wagon and took me to the South Davis Hospital in
Bountiful.

My dad, Russell H. Sheffield, was called and met me at the hospital. They X-rayed
my leg and discovered that my left leg was three inches shorter than my right leg.
When the break had occurred, the bones overlapped each other thus creating the
shortness. They wheeled me down the hallway and put me in a room. Dr. Dewey
MacKay said that I would have to stay in the hospital with my leg in traction to
bring the bones back out together so they could heal and mend.

I found out later that I had a bone tumor. I could have broken my leg by just
stepping off a step the wrong way. I was in the hospital for almost 6 weeks. The
ward priesthood would bring over the sacrament every Sunday. I had a lot of my
friends come to visit me. A couple of friends would even smuggle in hamburgers
and fries into the hospital. I had a favorite nurse during this time. Her name was
Jan and she was very nice to me. She would come into my room and hold my hand
and just talk. Because I had to lie on my back for so long, I watched a lot of
television.

Even though I had a bone tumor, it was not malignant. There was another boy in

my stake, Greg Hart, who was just a bit older than me that had a bone tumor in his
leg that was malignant and he died. I was very lucky that the bone tumor I had was
not cancerous.

The ward newsletter wrote the following about me: “Hats off to Tommy Sheffield,
a boy who is cheerful although faced with the problem of having his leg in a cast
for some time to come. In the hospital, Tommy likes to push the TV buttons on the
remote-control unit and the button which brings the nurse with milk and popsicles.
Tommy will not be able to start school because he will be in a cast for three
months after he comes home. God bless you, Tommy, for your cheerfulness and
faith.”

After the 6 weeks in the hospital, I had an operation on my leg and was put into a
body cast from my chest to my toes and was able to come home. I was in bed for
another three months. My cast was heavy and was itchy inside. I used a
straightened coat hanger to scratch the itchy areas. To get around, I had to roll out
of bed onto an ambulance stretcher that was lent to us by Mr. Gary Schmidt, a
Utah Highway Patrolman. Using my hands and arms I could maneuver the
stretcher down the hallway and through the various rooms. We used to have a
planter between the hallway and the living room that showed the scars and marks
where I would bump into it while using the stretcher.

During this time, I missed the starting of 8th grade. The school district provided a
tutor to come and teach me at home. I missed a total of one-half of my 8th grade. I
finally got the body cast off and went back to the hospital for a second operation.
This time the operation was completely successful on my leg. I was put into a leg
cast for about four months and finally started back to school on crutches in
November 1962.

I remember hopping along on my crutches in the school hallways heading to
classes. Some of the boys thought it was funny to kick my crutches out from under
me and would laugh as I fell on the floor. I have always tried to be respectful and
kind to others but after a few times of those boys knocking my crutches out from
under me I knew I had to stand up for myself. So, the next time they tried to knock
my crutches out from under me, I swung one of my crutches around really hard
and knocked them down. That was the last time that they bullied me.

I finished 8th grade at Bountiful Jr. High and was on the Citizenship Roll for 8th
grade in 1963. I was the only boy with five girls to receive this special honor.