From Hospitals to Hollywood: After beating cancer, San Benito native makes television debut with stint on American Horror Story

By Pete Banda
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com

Imagine being told your 6-year-old son wouldn’t make it another 48 hours because of a fast growing tumor in his stomach. Now imagine eleven years later, you’re seeing that same son on one of the most popular television shows in America. That’s exactly what happened to San Benito native Luther Jones, whose son, Dustin, was just featured on the newest episode of American Horror Story.

Although the 17-year old Dustin, who went attended Ed Downs Elementary and Berta Cabaza Middle school before moving to Los Angeles, is just starting his battle for acting gigs, the battle he won as a confused 6-year-old is why Luther refers to his son as “our miracle from God.”

AS Dustin recalled it, “My stomach started hurting real bad at school one day, so I went to the nurse and she noticed some unusual lumps in my stomach,” said Dustin. “I went to the doctor and I thought I was constipated so the referred me to another doctor. That doctor ordered me to be life-flighted to another hospital because he didn’t think I would last another 48 hours.”

The doctor ended up finding a tumor in Dustin’s stomach. After landing at a second hospital, Dustin was diagnosed with B-Cell Leukemia/Burkitts Lymphoma, causing the fast growing tumor to reach the size of football.

After spending more than a year at Texan’s Children’s Hospital, Dustin was able to recover and is now eleven years in remission. After signing with an agent, Dustin moved permanently to LA and is currently finishing up his last year of high school, taking independent home schooling classes so he can still attend casting calls. Aside from a few commercials and music video roles, the part on American Horror Story is the first big break in what could be a promising career for the San Benito native.

“It was pretty cool, because usually when you audition, you have to wait for a call a back and that could take a few days so you really never know,” said Dustin. “The producers booked me for American Horror Story the same day as my audition, no waiting for a call back or anything.”

Dustin appeared on the show airing on Wednesday, September 28. American Horror Story is watched by over 10 million people nationwide on a weekly basis.