Talk:Ben Bowen

This article was nominated for deletion on 6 December 2010 (UTC). The result of the discussion was keep.

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Untitled

I would like to add the Text of various Citations about Ben Bowen. I believe they are deleted because of Copyright concerns. However, the work of the Federal Government (and by extension State Governments) is not subject to Copyright. In particular see the Wiki Link Work of the United States government or the following URL:

Work of the US Government

In addition, I would like to re-add some family and burial information. This is such things as family background, family members, church service and cemetary location. I believe this kind of information is common in biographies of Notable Persons. Let me know of any problem with these themes so I can better focus my writing ITBlair 08:31, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Let me reply to some of your concerns. First of all, the assumption that the fact that the work of the Federal Government is in the public domain means that the same policy somehow applies by extension to the state gov'ts is false. Each state has their own rules regarding the copyrights of their work and thus far Wikipedia has seen nothing to indicate that WV releases its work into the public domain. On top of that, Wikipedia articles do not generally include the entire text of awards, citations, etc. Wikipedia is for encyclopedia articles that describe the person, place, or thing and not as a depository for primary source texts. For that, you may want to put the citation up at Wikisource. After doing that, you can put a special template in the article that alerts users that there is more info about Bowen at Wikisource.

As for family and burial information, there are some concerns there, too. The article itself is about Ben Bowen and not his family. While I don't think that you would find anyone involved with Wikipedia that does not applaud the work of the Bowen family, the point of this article is not to promote the family, its members, or their great work. Keep mentions of Bowen's family brief, to the point, and focused on how it relates to Ben. For example, his father did some rescue work on 9/11, but that would be a better fit for an article on him than Ben (but it was decided long ago that being a victim or relief worker on 9/11 was not enough for a person to merit an article). Also, keep in mind WP:NOT, which point out that "Wikipedia is not a memorial." Some details, of course, could be included, but anything that doesn't contribute to a neutral point of view encyclopedia article is a distraction. there are other great sites like Find a Grave that you can use, however. This article, will by its very nature, find itself prone to those that would not find it to be an encyclopedic topic at all and could sieze on too much personal information as grounds to purge the article altogether, which neither of us wants to happen. youngamerican (

ahoy hoy) 12:09, 13 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Notability tag

I added a notability tag to this article, because I am unsure if it meets the guidelines. Many children have cancer, and their families use this as a way to promote awareness in their local communities. I'm not sure that this is enough to be considered notable by WP standards. Ckessler 18:07, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the tag, as I feel that inclusion guidelines have indeed been met. I would agree with you if he was just used to raise awareness in a "local community," however his story has become something of a posterchild for St. Jude's throughout the US. I feel the subject excedes the criteria at WP:BIO, as there has been significant, non-trivial external press coverage on the subject. The fact that a state highway is named for him further solidifies his postition. youngamerican (wtf?) 18:44, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A Bit More History

I will add a bit more history of Ben Bowen's system, how the disease was discovered and then treated. It will be a shorter abstract of the text below:

"Ben and his older brother, Eli, were both early walkers and talkers, healthy, curious boys. The Bowens knew something was not right when Ben became lethargic and then started throwing up regularly and slept almost solidly for three days. They went to their local hospital in West Virginia only to be told that nothing was wrong. The parents said they were treated as if they were hypochondriacs. A CAT scan was ordered and then cancelled. They were told to go home.

Finally, the Bowens' family doctor insisted on a CAT scan. Then the faces who had told them it was nothing returned with bad news. Because of timing and a lack of hospital beds, Ben was flown to a hospital in Cincinnati. There, they learned that Ben had an atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (ATRT), a rare and insidious brain tumor that can grow rapidly and is almost impossible to remove fully. This tumor is difficult to treat with chemotherapy or radiation because of the location and type, and oftentimes the young age of the patient. Things did not seem to be in the family’s favor.

That night, Ben underwent the first of four operations. After a touch-and-go month when Ben did not fare well physically or emotionally, the doctors referred them to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital."

The next phase of the expansion is to list the major surgeries, treatments, and their outcomes. For example,

• March 3, 2004 – Third Ventriculostomy emergency surgery to relieve pressure building in Ben’s brain. The pressure was due to the tumor blocking CSF, or spinal fluid from flowing from the third ventricle. Additionally, they took a sample of the tumor for review. An External Ventricular Drain (temporary device) was installed to allow doctors to control fluid build up on Ben’s brain. Tumor site was in the third ventricle (center most point in his head).

• March 8, 2004 – Resection of tumor. Initially believed to be 100%, a later MRI showed 10% remained. This surgery was very invasive and required them to cut the corpus callosum (part of the brain that allows his left and right brain to communicate).

• April 6, 2004 – Resection of tumor, installation of ommaya reservoir (allows doctors to inject chemotherapy directly into his brain through a “bubble” on his head) and central line (direct line to his vein and heart that allows medicines and blood to be given and lab work to be taken). More corpus callosum was cut for this resection. Later MRI revealed about 5% of initial tumor remained.

ITBlair 06:42, 13 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Problem of Evil

This discussion should be less than two sentences, but it will link to the Wiki pages on the Problem of Evil (Why a Young Boy Would have Terminal Cancer and Die Painfully) and Theodicity.

ITBlair 06:42, 13 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.205.31.172 (talk) 20:21, 6 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 06:46, 10 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Babies are not believers

I've twice removed Category:American Protestants. Babies are not religious believers; they cannot "self-identify" as any religion. The fact that his parents may be Protestants or hold the baby out as a Protestant is irrelevant as to the baby's categorization. Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 09:09, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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