Jacob's Medical Fund

Jacob Ryan Hicks

Jacob was born on January 8, 2013 and was born at 36 weeks with an emergency c-section due to his mom (Melisa Hicks) going into HELP Syndrome. He was born weighing 3lbs and 10 ounces. After he was born, it was discovered that he had an invtero stroke which destroyed the right side of his brain. He was then admitted to the hospital at CHKD where he went through multiple tests to include a pic line, plasma transfusions and was assigned to a neurologist, hematologist and an eye specialist. Jacob's eyes began to fill with blood and that is when his hematologist began running test. The test revealed that Jacob had a protein C deficiency and was pumped with plasma to try to produce some protein so that he would not develop anymore blood clots. That was finally controlled and he was put on blood thinning injections that were given two times a day.
Jacob finally came home weighing only 4lbs. Three months after he came home, they discovered what looked like a cataract in his left eye. He was taken back to the hospital to see the eye doctor for an appointment that should have taken one hour, however, lasted five long hours. After test was done, he was rushed to an eye specialist where they were told he would have to have exploratory surgery. The surgery was completed and the news was not good. The doctors would not be able to save Jacob's left eye. Five days after the exploratory surgery, Jacob's left eye was removed and replaced with a prosthetic. This all occurred at the age of four months old. At the age of six months old, the Hicks were told that their son had the brain function of a one month old baby. Jacob could not gain weight or keep food down. Jacob was not supposed to be able to do much, but they put him into physical therapy and hung onto their faith. 
At nine months Jacob was tested for a protein C gene. At eleven months the results were back which revealed that he did indeed have a protein C mutated gene in which caused all his protein C to deplete. He also has two other clotting factors in his gene make-up. Just prior to his first birthday, he was taken off the injections and placed on a daily aspirin.
Jacob's first birthday came and was celebrated with a huge party with Jacob coming so far along in his first year of unknowns. Shortly after his birthday, he started to have multiple seizures a day. The seizures started out at two minutes long and slowly went up to eleven minutes. Jacob then stopped eating and became dehydrated. His seizures then began to last up to twenty minutes long and landed him back into the hospital. After Jacob had a fifty-two minute long seizure, Jacob was once again hooked up to machines for four days to try and figure out what was going on. During this testing, it was discovered that Jacob had a digestion problem and that was the cause for him not eating or being able to keep anything down. After a month and a week in the hospital, he came back home with medicine controlling the seizures and Jacob finally gaining weight. Just after six weeks, Jacob broke through his medications and his seizures multiplied by the day. Jacob has been through seven medications which he has broken through all of them, causing him to have seventy seizures a day.
They have recently contacted Johns Hopkins in the hope that research can be started to find a cure for baby Jacob.
Due to Jacob's brain damage, he has cerebral Palsy on his left side. His leg is doing very good but he doesn’t use his left arm and his hand is trying to close shut. His back is weak and is trying to curve to the left. He cannot sit up on his own yet, but he loves to jump in his jumper and bounce around on his back on the floor. His weak upper body has caused poor airway clearance and now has bad asthma. 
Melissa and Keith have done all that they can from installing HEPA filters, vacuuming daily and putting a clean air machine in his room. The problem is that their house is small and Jacob's room has the washer and dryer in it. They are now in the process of adding an addition to their house and a zero outside step entrance for easy wheelchair access. This access and new room addition will help in so many ways. They are planning to put a bigger jumping system in his room and a platform swing to provide him better in home physical and occupational therapy. They are committed to see their son live the most functional life as he possibly can. Baby Jacob will be two years old this January and are excited to hit this milestone in his life.
Any help would be highly appreciated in helping them with the additions needed for Baby Jacob.

Thank You in advance...