Help Support Allen Hinckley's Recovery!

Allen Hinckley, 8 year old son of Tracy and Les Hinckley of Windsor Locks has had a scary, difficult and draining past few months. Allen was living as 8 year olds do best, going to school and enjoying playing sports such as baseball and basketball. A few months ago Allen began experiencing headache symptoms and had to miss school resulting in many ER and doctor visits. Later to find out through an MRI he had a Congenital Arachnoid Cyst with a Subdural Hematoma, which was fenestrated in his brain.  Arachnoid Cysts are rare occurring in only 1% of the population but are more dominant in males. While most are not symptomatic those like Allen do require surgery to alleviate the symptoms.

Allen's first surgery on March 13th was a craniotomy and unfortunately was not successful. On March 24th Allen endured a second surgery where they inserted a shunt into his brain, valve behind his ear and catheter into his abdominal cavity. This is typically a 48 hour stay but for Allen it turned into 12 days. His family had to be patient and watch a very slow recovery. Allen couldn't lift his head past 25 degrees and required daily physical therapy. 

He is now home enduring a very slow recovery while being closely watched.  In the next several weeks it will be determined whether he will require an additional surgery to adjust his shunt and valve system.  Allen will have to live with the shunt for the rest of his life, with future surgeries for revisions to his shunt and valve system as he grows into adulthood.

The Hinckley Family would like to thank the nursing staff of the 6th floor at CCMC and his Pediatric Neurosurgeon, Dr. Jonathan Martin. The family also extends a huge thank you to family, friends, co-workers, Allen's 3rd grade classmates and the teachers and staff at WLSES.

Any help you can give to assist Allen's family support his recovery is greatly appreciated! Additionally there will be a benefit in Allen's honor on June 7th at Sonny's Place in Somers Ct. from 4-8 p.m. To purchase tickets please contact Kara Rogan at (860) [phone redacted], Steve Hinckley at [phone redacted] or Kristy Claffey at [phone redacted].  There will also be tickets available at the door for $25. Children 4 years old and under are free.