HOST: When Robert Robinson’s daughter, Angel, started rapidly losing weight… doctors incorrectly diagnosed them with an eating disorder.

But on one visit to the hospital… a doctor on-call discovered a rare stomach tumor.

That doctor, John Fortunato, would stay with the family through Angel’s treatment up until their death in 2023.

At StoryCorps in Chicago, Dr. Fortunato sat down with Angel’s father for this conversation.

John Fortunato (JF) and Robert Robinson (RR)

JF: My first memory of meeting Angel was in the hospital. When I walked in the room, Angel was smiling the whole time. A teenager who was… in control of the room. 

And I remember she told me to push her on her belly and I could make her throw up.

After I diagnosed Angel with the tumor, what was your first response to that?

RR: Before you discovered it, no one would listen to her. Even me.

And… I still regret that. But I didn’t know. 

They were saying it was an eating disorder. And, when you go to the doctor, you’re trusting the professionals. You just, ‘Okay, that’s what the doctor said, that’s what it is.’ So I’m kind of trying to push her, you know what I mean? And it’s not her fault. 

JF: Parents, myself included, don’t always see things clearly, especially as it relates to teenagers. But that doesn’t mean a parent’s doing something wrong. I never tell someone not to feel guilty because that’s not a fair expectation. But, we just do the best we can to support and love our kids. 

 And that’s something that amazed me… you being a single father of twins, and somehow spending an incredible amount of time and energy with both your daughters. 

RR: Nothing else mattered to me but my kids. We couldn’t rely on anybody but each other. It was us against the world type of situation that I feel made her stronger, mentally. 

Cause it’s lot of times I wanted to be like… ‘Well, if you’re gonna die anyway, forget doing this chemo. You can keep your hair.’ And she would, ‘Nah, we don’t give up. I’m gonna keep fighting.’

JF: Sometimes you sink or swim and I got the impression that Angel was not gonna sink under any circumstances.

RR: No, she wasn’t.

JF: I wasn’t ready to give up either. But I realized, you know, after a while… it was a, just, almost impossible situation.

RR: When Angel died, I just remember, standing over her trying to talk to her and her eyes was open but she wasn’t responsive. And her sister was singing to her. And her heart rate was dropping, it was going from 180, it went down to 140. From 140 it went down to 80. From 80 it went down to 40 and… it was over.

JF: I wish that none of this had ever happened to your family but she, um, reminded me kinda what I got into this career to begin with for… and that’s the only regret is I wish I could have told her what her impact was.

RR: And I really appreciate those times, everyone was saying ‘It’s a wrap,’ you know what I mean?

For you to still be there and be like, ‘Nah, there’s still stuff you can do, you ain’t gotta blow the trumpet just yet.’ When a time when there wasn’t any hope, that really lifted us up.