Mom captures touching moment between autistic teen and oncologist

A touching moment between a 16-year-teen autistic teen who has Down syndrome and the oncologist who helped him beat a life-threatening blood cancer was caught on camera by his mother, and has since gone viral.

Jacob Moore, of Alpharetta, Georgia, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at age 10, MyFoxAtlanta.com reported. He was admitted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta where he was paired with Dr. Glen Lew, an oncologist at the hospital’s cancer center.

“I think at first, I don’t think he trusted me or liked me very much,” Lew told MyFoxAtlanta.com. “But I think over time, he trusted me and got used to me. He tolerated me.”

Chemotherapy causes patient's with Down syndrome to experience adverse effects, and it stripped Moore of his ability to walk, eat and go to the bathroom.

“He’s overcome battle after battle after battle,” Lew told the news site. Most recently, Lew met with Moore to explain to him that he is no longer a cancer patient, and he would no longer need to come see him.

“I think I said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t need to see me anymore,’” Lew told MyFoxAtlanta.com.

But Moore became emotional, fearing that he would never again see the doctor he had learned to trust over six years.

“Dr. Lew went over to him and grabbed his hand and just said, ‘Jacob, it’s going to be ok,’” Moore’s mother, Heidi, told the news station.

“We’re just going to see each other socially now. Just not at the doctor’s office,” Lew told Moore.

At that moment, patient and doctor held hands with their heads bent, and Heidi snapped a photo.

“Within the first hour, they had 1,000 likes,” Heidi told MyFoxAtlanta.com. “And it just kept going and going and going.”

Among Moore’s most recent accomplishments is attending his school’s prom.

“I don’t know if there are very many adults who would go through what he’s been going through and still have a smile on his face,” Heidi told the news station.