Austins Angels

Heather is a single mom of the amazing 17 year old Austin.  In the next couple of weeks, Austin will have a surgery to amputate his left leg below the knee and will finally be relieved of the intense pain that has plagued him over the past years.  Austin was diagnosed with a rare disease called Parkes Weber Syndrome that is slowly deteriorating his leg.  This condition is a vascular overgrowth that creates AVM's, extra soft tissue, extra veins, arteries and longer, thicker bones.  Ultimately it can lead to heart failure.  He was born with his left leg being longer than his right.  Thinking this was just something that might cause some minor physical issues for Austin, the doctors did not realize how bad things were beneath the surface.  Austin had his first surgery his freshman year of high school, 4 years ago.  The goal of the surgery was to cut out the growth plates in his left knee hoping to give his right leg a chance to catch up as well as relieve some of the pain the imbalance was causing him.  During his sophomore year, he had yet another knee surgery to repair the complications from the first knee surgery done the prior year.  After this surgery didn't work, it was obvious there was something more complex going on.  Austin was an advanced student academically while attending Hamilton High School his freshman year.  After missing so much class due to surgeries, complications and pain, he moved to Chandler Early College because his teachers were not willing to work with him to keep him on track.  Soon, it became too difficult for Austin to sit in a classroom so he had to transfer to online high school removing him from the physical interaction with his peers.  Austin has been in extreme pain due to his condition.  He has not been able to sleep, concentrate on school or do anything outside of trying to cope with the pain.  We can all imagine how difficult this has been on his mom.  Being a single mom with no family near, 3 dogs and a mortgage not to mention the immense amount of medical bills that have been piling up.  Heather is not only needing support emotionally and mentally, but you can imagine how financially demanding her situation has become.  The surgery to do the amputation will be in excess of $700,000 and that's not including the current medical bills in excess of $500,000.  Heather works full-time leaving her home at 6:45 in the morning and ending at 5pm when she heads to the hospital to be with her baby boy until late.  There has been no reprieve for her and is understandably very worried about the upcoming surgery for Austin, there are many unknowns at this point.  The amputation surgery is hopefully just going to be below Austins knee, but the doctors aren't sure until they are able to get inside his leg and determine the location.  The surgery needs to be done because there are too many AVM's in his ankle and foot for them to bypass any of his arteries.  He still has 2 very large AVM's in his glut and knee.  Austin is trying to reassure his mom that he will be able to do great things to help people when this is all over and is looking forward to pursuing his dream of heading to the WP Carey School of Business at ASU.  Please join us in an effort of love to help Heather and Austin. All proceeds from this campaign will go directly to Heather for Austin's needs.