Josh's Service Dog
Donation protected
Josh Thomas – Guardian Angels with Four Legs
Whilst most 17 year olds are creating their own life, asserting their independence and making friends left, right and centre, 17 year old Josh Thomas is in and out of hospital, struggling to maintain adequate health. Josh was born with a malformation of the blood vessels of his brain called a Vein of Galen Malformation (VGM). The Vein of Galen consists of abnormal connections between the arteries (carries blood to the body) and deep draining veins, (returns blood to the heart) and lacks capillaries to slow the blood flow between arteries and veins. Without capillaries, blood is shunted directly in to the vein at high output. This in turn increases the workload of the heart, left untreated this often results in abnormal brain development, brain damage, strokes, seizures, paralysis, learning difficulties, hydrocephalus and ultimately cardiac failure and death.
Josh’s first year was fraught with difficulties as we battled to keep him alive. Against the odds we won the battle and our boy grew up into a someone everyone fell in love with. As Josh grew he was settled and stable, although he was often unwell with shunt problems and seizures our life was relatively normal.
It was in 2010 that huge changes begun to appear. Josh was deteriorating, although subtle at first we begun to notice his walking wasn’t as smooth and his speech wasn’t as clear and his memory was fading. Its taken four years to really get a handle on what is going on with Josh and if we can help him. Doctors have tried to stabilise him and halt the deterioration but at this stage nothing is working. His neurosurgeon now believes that the blood vessels in his brain are becoming tired and are struggling to keep up with the abnormal flow within his brain. The malformation is stealing blood from the rest of his brain and isnt allowing blood to disperse, leaving the majority of the brain lacking vital flow needed to thrive.
We are not sure how long we will have our beautiful boy but are determined that his life will be what he wants it to be.
His deterioration in mental state, which is painfully fast-tracking his incredibly premature march toward dementia, totally impedes his ability to make new friends. This leaves Josh highly anxious, restless and understandably angry, often with the world! He was recently introduced to Kevin from Centre for Service and Therapy Dogs Australia (CSTDA) and suddenly, things began to change - positively and dramatically.
It turns out Josh has a natural talent for learning with and about assistance dogs - which not only shift his inherent sense of isolation and frustration, but also create an almost immediate sense of calm within him, which has been noted on the medical monitoring systems, to which he spends a great deal of time tethered!
An Assistance Dog can be specially trained to detect changes in Josh’s physiological state, which indicates the onset of a seizure – a gift that gives twice, as the dog alerts his family or medical staff to the onset of a seizure….but MORE IMPORTANTLY, comforts Josh through this frightening and uncontrollable trauma and helps him avoid completely isolating himself in his internal world (furthering the deterioration toward dementia). The other gift these dogs offer Josh is that it is evident his interactions with the dog – even that gentle and reassuring presence of someone who simply knows his heart – helps him recover those aspects of his personality that are daily being ground down by the pressures of life – pressures unjustly metered out to a boy who has carried this burden for nearly 18 years!
Whilst his parents commit endless hours of care, attention and love to Josh, often decreasing the time they can be available to their other 2 children, there is a limit to what is humanly possible – emotionally, physically and certainly financially – even for the most devoted and “present” of parents, which indeed this wonderful couple are!
This is your invitation to support this beautiful young man, and his family, to achieve some small modicum of contentment, friendship and that special bond the rest of us know to be love, so what remains of his life might be fashioned, at least in part, by him truly opening his heart to his 4 legged Guardian Angel.
Whilst most 17 year olds are creating their own life, asserting their independence and making friends left, right and centre, 17 year old Josh Thomas is in and out of hospital, struggling to maintain adequate health. Josh was born with a malformation of the blood vessels of his brain called a Vein of Galen Malformation (VGM). The Vein of Galen consists of abnormal connections between the arteries (carries blood to the body) and deep draining veins, (returns blood to the heart) and lacks capillaries to slow the blood flow between arteries and veins. Without capillaries, blood is shunted directly in to the vein at high output. This in turn increases the workload of the heart, left untreated this often results in abnormal brain development, brain damage, strokes, seizures, paralysis, learning difficulties, hydrocephalus and ultimately cardiac failure and death.
Josh’s first year was fraught with difficulties as we battled to keep him alive. Against the odds we won the battle and our boy grew up into a someone everyone fell in love with. As Josh grew he was settled and stable, although he was often unwell with shunt problems and seizures our life was relatively normal.
It was in 2010 that huge changes begun to appear. Josh was deteriorating, although subtle at first we begun to notice his walking wasn’t as smooth and his speech wasn’t as clear and his memory was fading. Its taken four years to really get a handle on what is going on with Josh and if we can help him. Doctors have tried to stabilise him and halt the deterioration but at this stage nothing is working. His neurosurgeon now believes that the blood vessels in his brain are becoming tired and are struggling to keep up with the abnormal flow within his brain. The malformation is stealing blood from the rest of his brain and isnt allowing blood to disperse, leaving the majority of the brain lacking vital flow needed to thrive.
We are not sure how long we will have our beautiful boy but are determined that his life will be what he wants it to be.
His deterioration in mental state, which is painfully fast-tracking his incredibly premature march toward dementia, totally impedes his ability to make new friends. This leaves Josh highly anxious, restless and understandably angry, often with the world! He was recently introduced to Kevin from Centre for Service and Therapy Dogs Australia (CSTDA) and suddenly, things began to change - positively and dramatically.
It turns out Josh has a natural talent for learning with and about assistance dogs - which not only shift his inherent sense of isolation and frustration, but also create an almost immediate sense of calm within him, which has been noted on the medical monitoring systems, to which he spends a great deal of time tethered!
An Assistance Dog can be specially trained to detect changes in Josh’s physiological state, which indicates the onset of a seizure – a gift that gives twice, as the dog alerts his family or medical staff to the onset of a seizure….but MORE IMPORTANTLY, comforts Josh through this frightening and uncontrollable trauma and helps him avoid completely isolating himself in his internal world (furthering the deterioration toward dementia). The other gift these dogs offer Josh is that it is evident his interactions with the dog – even that gentle and reassuring presence of someone who simply knows his heart – helps him recover those aspects of his personality that are daily being ground down by the pressures of life – pressures unjustly metered out to a boy who has carried this burden for nearly 18 years!
Whilst his parents commit endless hours of care, attention and love to Josh, often decreasing the time they can be available to their other 2 children, there is a limit to what is humanly possible – emotionally, physically and certainly financially – even for the most devoted and “present” of parents, which indeed this wonderful couple are!
This is your invitation to support this beautiful young man, and his family, to achieve some small modicum of contentment, friendship and that special bond the rest of us know to be love, so what remains of his life might be fashioned, at least in part, by him truly opening his heart to his 4 legged Guardian Angel.
Organizer
Mette Thomas
Organizer
Devon Meadows VIC
