In order to deal with his fear of this dread thing, David decided to name it Frankenstein. And to help pay his medical bills, his parents created a bumper sticker saying, “Frank Must Die” and began selling it on eBay. They say if somebody would pay $28,000 for a grilled cheese sandwich thought to bear the image of the Virgin Mary, somebody might pay big money to help their son.

Bidding rose to $6,000 before eBay kicked out their auction, citing numerous rule violations. Spokesman Hani Durzy said auctioneers are not allowed to advertise that money for their items will go toward a cause. The family amended the ad and had a new version up and running the same day.

David was diagnosed in May 2003 with a grapefruit-sized malignant tumor called a rhabdomyosarcoma. The size and location of the tumor - most are in the limbs - made it impossible for doctors to take out, according to his mother in her ad on eBay.

Now, David needs a highly specialized biopsy to determine whether the tumor is still cancerous or if it has been reduced to scar tissue, his mother and doctor said.

Because David's carotid artery runs through the tumor, the biopsy is extremely risky. One way to perform the biopsy would require doctors to actually remove David's face to get to the tumor.

The very thought set his mother off on a search for a less extreme biopsy method. She eventually discovered specialists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles who can get to the tumor by going through David's nose.

"It's a very specialized thing within pediatric neurosurgery," said David's oncologist, Dr. Jay Greenberg. "There's only like five guys around the country comfortable doing this."

The family must pay 20 percent of the surgery bill, which also requires a $1,500 fee paid in advance, said Dingman-Grover, who does not yet know exactly how much the procedure will cost.

Insurance has covered most of the $1 million in treatment expenses, but the family still shells out about $200,000 a year to cover their share of the medical bills, she said.

The family's income took a hit when Dingman-Grover cut back her hours at work to stay home with David. The local church donated money and she began auctioning personal items on eBay to help supplement the funds.

In a sad postscript to David's auction, there are numerous eBay sellers capitalizing on the publicity created by this now-famous auction. Going to eBay today and typing in the keywords “frank must die” reveals 27 items with these keywords in their listing titles. Reading over the auctions, most (all?) of them have nothing whatsoever to do with this brave little boy and his fight for life. Shame on them!