A community of Levi Buxman supporters gathered March 13 in the Akron Children’s Hospital atrium to celebrate as the 11-year-old from Wooster officially finished cancer treatment.
Around 1 p.m., Levi arrived to his celebration in style, wearing a Michael Jackson outfit and dancing to the finish line to “Thriller.”
In a sequined black fedora red and black racer jacket and blue-raspberry glasses, the Fifth grader at Green Elementary School in Smithville bounced back and forth as he walked through a cheering crowd of friends, family and Akron Children’s staff.
He’s listened to and sang to “Thriller” in ambulances, while falling asleep for lumbar punctures and throughout his almost 270 nights spent in the hospital since his November 2023 diagnosis of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
On Friday, it was his victory song as he rang a bell signifying an end to his cancer treatment.
“This day has felt like it has been so far away for so long, and now that it’s here, … it’s kind of wild,” said his mother, Lauren Buxman, in an interview with the Akron Beacon Journal a couple of days before the event. “It’s equal parts exciting and scary,” she said, tearing up.
When asked in the interview how he would feel when he finally rang the bell, Levi shook with excitement and wiggled his arms in the air.
He is excited to be done with treatment, get his med port taken out, which he has named “Bob,” and, above anything, to be able to swim in the sea again, something he hasn’t been able to do because of the risk of bacterial infection.
After almost two-and-a-half years of treatment, Lauren is looking forward to Levi, who has Down syndrome, being able to heal his body and be a kid again. He loves bowling, playing outside in his treehouse, camping in Colorado and the Rubber Ducks.
“He has handled all of this like a champ,” she said. “He is a crazy tough kid — very resilient.”
Levi’s medical story
When Levi was 9 years old, Lauren thought he had the flu. He was also more tired than usual, less active with his friends, was getting fevers and appeared jaundiced.
When she took him to urgent care, they told them to go to the emergency room because he had an increased respiratory rate.
“Within an hour or two of us being there, they gave us the diagnosis [through blood work],” said Lauren, who has chronicled Levi’s journey on her “Levi’s Legion” Facebook page. “(Levi) didn’t end up coming home then for almost 70 days.”
Levi spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s at Akron Children’s. He would end up spending the next two Christmases there as well.
B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (or B-ALL) is a bone marrow and blood cancer. Children are seven to 20 times more likely to develop B-ALL if they have Down syndrome, according to Dr. Megan Sampson, Levi’s primary pediatric oncologist.
B-ALL is the most common type of childhood leukemia, according to the Leukemia Research Foundation. It has a high cure rate, and around 85% of children with B-ALL will stay cancer-free after five years.
Sampson said she followed the standard care of treatment for B-ALL in children with Down syndrome, to which Levi responded well. The treatment is most intense for the first six to nine months, when chemotherapy is administered one or two times per week.
“Typically, you expect their bone marrow to be in remission after the first month of treatment,” Sampson said. “However, we know we need to continue to treat the leukemia because if we don’t, … we know it will come back.”
Once the first phase is over, the patient reaches the maintenance phase, during which they receive chemotherapy once per month, mostly through oral medications.
“In children with Down syndrome, when we are treating them for leukemia, they are at higher risk for infections throughout their treatment,” Sampson said.
Levi faced numerous infections throughout his treatment, which led to frequent hospitalizations.
“We got to be pretty close with all the staff at Akron Children’s,” Lauren said.
Levi’s love for Akron Children’s
Even after all he has been through at the hospital, Levi still loves Akron Children’s.
“One day, we were pulling up, and we were checking in for a 30-day stay, and as we pulled up to the hospital, he screamed,” Lauren said. “He was like, ‘I’m so excited for my vacation! Aren’t you excited, Mom?’”
Throughout his stays, his mother, father, Branden, and two brothers, Boyd and Graham, would decorate his rooms to different themes for holidays and Levi’s favorite things, including camping and Colorado.
In the oncology department, he also participated in the Beads of Courage program. For everything he went through, including every poke, scan, lumbar puncture and surgery, he received a bead and placed it on his IV pole.
Today, he has more than 4,000 beads.
Kate O’Malley, an occupational therapist at Akron Children’s who came to Levi’s celebration, said he kept in good spirits throughout his treatment.
“When I see him in clinic, or even when he was in the hospital, he always just seemed excited to be there,” Sampson said. “He called the hospital his hotel. He liked coming and visiting and having sleepovers.”
Brandon Hadley, an Akron Children’s chaplain who was took part in the bell-ringing celebration, said the fact that everybody at the hospital is there for the kids makes it a special place.
Every time a child finishes their treatment, he puts their bell-ringing on his calendar — even for the kids who he hasn’t met — so he can celebrate with them.
“It’s always a powerful moment,” Hadley said.
Levi loves the hospital food, even though he is limited to a gluten-free menu due to his celiac disease. He rarely ever complains, and he was never anxious about being at the hospital, which Sampson said made the journey easier on his family.
When he comes in for his regular clinic visits, he visits his nursing staff.
“The unit that we were in was only 20 beds, so we really got to know all of the staff,” Lauren said. “We’ve been looking forward to the day when we can actually be what we call ‘real life’ friends, when he’s no longer a patient.”
‘It helped us all get through it together.’ Shenanigans with Levi and Liam
Throughout his journey, Levi formed a close relationship with fellow patient Liam Whitworth, who had embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer. Liam died in May 2025.
“Liam and Levi weirdly had some kind of bizarre relationship,” Lauren said. “Anytime Levi would show up for an admission, within 24 hours, Liam would also show up.”
They got through things together, playing Madden football in the floor’s teen room, having birthday parties and staying up late.
“The nurses really liked having the two of them around because it’s so nice to have kids moving around and hear laughter because so many kids are very sick in bed and don’t really come out of their rooms,” Lauren said.
The day after Whitworth died, Levi hadn’t been told yet. Lauren brought him to the park, and she parked the car.
“He goes, ‘Mom, it’s really sad, we need to get some flowers, but Liam passed away.’ I was like, ‘You’re right, he did, how did you know that?’ He was like, ‘I know.’”
The families are still close to this day.
Life after B-ALL
Lauren said Levi finishing treatment leaves her with a weird mix of emotions. She’s sad to be leaving behind “their people.”
“We’ve gotten comfortable in the high stress,” she said.
The family has had a tremendous amount of community support, with the Smithville School District coordinating a spirit week the week leading up to his bell-ringing. The elementary school will also host its own bell-ringing ceremony and clap-out.
For now, Levi is focusing on gaining his stamina back. Sampson will still see him frequently to check his blood count, and Akron Children’s Survivorship Clinic will monitor him for any potential long-term health complications from the chemotherapy.
But he’s no stranger to bouncing back. At 18 months old, he had open-heart surgery at Akron Children’s and has also had numerous eye surgeries throughout the years.
None of it has dimmed his light.
After kissing his hand and placing it on his mom’s forehead, Levi wrapped Lauren up in a big hug, holding her as tightly as he could.
And even after ringing the bell on Friday, Levi kept on dancing for as long as the music played.
“He makes our lives better,” Lauren said. “He loves people and loves life in a way that I don’t understand, that sometimes reminds me to look at life a little bit more positively.”
Lauren Cohen is a community reporting intern for the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron. The position is funded through a grant from the Knight Foundation, which is a financial supporter of Signal Akron.