Posted on 09/08/2013 9:05:39 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
At almost 4 months of age, little Brooks Dillard has spent more than half his short life in the hospital. For the last 8 weeks (as of 8/16/13), he has been at Seattle Children's Hospital. He has been on a ventilator the entire time, has had two major surgeries with another one in his near future.
Brooks was born with a very rare congenital heart defect called Double Aortic Arch. Normally, the aorta leaves the heart and branches off to supply the arteries going to the arms and head. One of these branches then turns down to supply the lower body with blood. In Brooks' case, both branches rejoined after wrapping around his trachea and esophagus. The pressure from having the vascular ring this created constricted his airway and effectively prevented his trachea from developing properly.
Brooks has had two major surgeries already. The first was to open the ring. The second, called an aortopexy, was designed to reduce the pressure on his trachea. This second surgery wasn't as effective as we had hoped and he will be receiving a third surgery, possibly an experimental ground-breaking one, in the very near future.
We have already raised quite a bit of money from the wonderful people out there with huge hearts and the resources to be able to help. Unfortunately, the daily trip to visit Brooks typically costs $40-$50 and so we have been burning through the money as quickly as it comes in.
Anything given is greatly appreciated. This has been an extremely stressful journey for us and the money raised has reduced one major aspect of that stress to a manageable level. Thank you!
Updates for Brooks' journey are posted most days on his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brooks-Dillard/262695097206545 - See more at: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/visiting-little-brooks-/67945#sthash.kN2McA8d.dpuf
(Excerpt) Read more at youcaring.com ...
We were told because of hubby’s Navy retirement, and both our SS checks he does not qualify. They told him to apply for VA disability because of jet engine hearing loss. And he thinks the retinatis he had was caused by the cleaning chems they were using in the 60-70’s. He is 20 year career Navy. Now 73. So you see how far back he was in. There for the Cuban Miss. Crisis, and on the Midway when they pulled the Amb out of Nam.
Thanks, that is what I thought, but I wasn’t sure.
More information:
A Tricare bureaucrat just denied this family insurance approval (after the FDA had already approved and the surgery was to be within 2 weeks) for him to have a 3D printer make him a dissolvable 3 year trachea. It would allow his body to strengthen his actual trachea. It has been very successful in the babies that have had it done.
I agree. I hope that some Freepers who live in the state of Washington might help out by passing this story along to their representatives and senators.
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