Help Asa back to Health and Happiness

Hello friends. My name is Philip Shores and I am creating this GoFundMe on behalf of my 6-year-old nephew, Asa Shores, and his dad (my brother, Stephen) and his mom (my sister-in-law, Keely).

As many of you may already know, when Asa was born in March 2017, he was 3 months premature. This caused numerous health issues, but most specifically with his brain, as he suffered a brain bleed, and subsequently suffers from hydrocephalus.

This has caused a fluid buildup in the ventricles of his brain, and the subsequent pressures required that a permanent shunt be placed in his brain to relieve the pressure.

This has worked well for several years, and Asa has been living a happy and decently healthy life. However this year, the pressure problems have arisen again and he has been in the hospital on and off. His entire shunt was replaced with an upgraded shunt, but that did not entirely solve the issue. On this last Sunday, it came to a critical moment where a second shunt had to be placed in his brain to continue to relieve the pressure.

I am told that, today, with the help of the second shunt, Asa has normalized a bit more, and is laughing and playing, and eating again! But this is only a temporary solution. His doctors now say that Asa has some new issues that need tending to.

In regards to the next steps: it was decided today by the neuro team that the best next step for Asa is a Cranial Vault surgery. This means they will extract a piece of his skull and reposition it to make space for his brain to breathe and fluid to build. His skull has already fused which it should not be.

This is restricting the growth of his brain and his head. He can only handle so much pressure before becoming symptomatic. This will likely be an adjustable setup so we will end up going home with some nuts and bolts to allow it to be adjusted. Eventually, the spaces will fill because his skull will produce more bone.

Asa will stay hospitalized until the procedure and will be hospitalized after the procedure for anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks as well as a few weeks of recovery at home. This will be in conjunction with neurosurgery and the mostly the plastic surgery team. The Director of the Neurosurgery group, the head honcho, will likely be the one that does the skull extraction procedure. He is very well-versed in this procedure and out of all the providers has done the procedure many times. Our neurosurgeon is looking to him for guidance. This is tentatively set for Monday, 5/8.

This being said, it is hopeful at this time and there are paths to follow to get Asa back to being the happy and healthy kid he normally is.

However, Asa’s mom, Keely, will be staying vigilant at his bedside the entire time and will be missing significant amounts of work to tend to their son. This is going to put a financial burden on their household, and while I know they hate to ask for assistance, I believe that it is needed to relieve the stresses of having their child suffer this unfortunate health event in his life.

Asa has been our miracle child from day one when he decided to enter this world earlier than anticipated. He has brought countless moments of joy and happiness to everyone’s lives that have encountered him. He is the apple of his mom and dad’s eye, and all they want at this point is, as everyone wants, a happy and peaceful life.

Any financial support you can donate will go directly toward Keely and Stephen’s household expenses while Keely remains by Asa’s side, and Dad (Stephen) continues to support the family with his job as best as he is able.

Thank you to those of you who have followed Asa’s journey with Keely and Stephen all this time, to those newcomers to this story, and to anyone who has a positive thought or prayer to spare the family during this time of crisis and, hopefully, ultimate healing and recovery.