Care for Anthony

My nephew, 3 year old Anthony, has physical and neurological disabilities and has been struggling the past year. He stopped eating and drinking so the doctors had to surgically place a gastrointestinal feeding tube last November 2018. He gets tube feedings 4 or 5 times a day and needs to be hooked up to a feeding pump for an hour each time. He gets his medications throughout the day via his “tummy tube”.
Anthony cannot sit up, crawl, walk, talk or hold a bottle or spoon, and is not potting trained. He has hypotonia which is low/weak muscles and unknown neurological disorders. All his testing so far has shown nothing, no diagnosis, no answers! All we can do is take care of his needs and try to improve his quality of life as much as we can. Last year when his mom had some medical issues was gone from the home for a month, Anthony had some set backs and developed severe self injurious behaviors. He now constantly bangs his head on any hard surface, punches himself in the face with his fists and (due to his flexibility) kicks himself in the head if left unattended.
As a lot of you know he was a mess and his stay at home mom was having a hard time too, not to mention she also has a 6 year old daughter to care for.
My mother is an RN and took this past 6 months off work and has been going over daily to help Anthony and to take them to all the appointments he needs and get all the community help she could find. Anthony has regained most of his abilities that he had lost in the previous 6 months. He is now sitting in his wheelchair and bumbo chair everyday. He eats small amounts of applesauce and drinks small amounts from a sippy cup if you hold it for him and feed him.
But he needs daily constant care and lots of extra attention due to his neurological behavioral disabilities as well as his physical disabilities. We are trying to find state certified caregivers but they are only approved for 10 hours a week! Anthony needs much more than that!
I am hoping to raise enough money for my mom, Anthony’s Grammy, to stay home and work with/care for Anthony’s extensive needs for at least another 6 months. My mother’s heart is breaking at the idea of her having to go back to work and not have time to take care of Anthony as much as he needs. We are hoping that with another 6 months he will at least stabilize enough and we would have a routine caregiver a couple hours a day to help.
Your donations would be greatly appreciated and if you haven’t met Anthony just let me know and we would love to introduce him to you. Thank you and my mother thanks you from the bottom of her heart!