Service dog for a Special 5yr old
As a grandmother and mother, I'm appealing for your for help!
My 5-year-old grandson has a serious medical condition and it's breaking my heart to see the constant worry not to mention the financial strain his parents are dealing with daily.
Anthony has endured more pain, stress and operations than any 4-year-old should have to endure. Yet he's still such a happy sweet loving little boy.
Every day is a challenge for Anthony, he doesn't get to do a lot of things other kids do. Just feeding himself is a big task but he continues to try!
He's unstable on his feet after a suffering a stroke at just 2yrs of age (the result of a chronic heart condition), the blood clot is still in his brain.
He also takes blood thinners so his blood doesn't clot as efficiently as it should (to help prevent clotting/strokes), the risk is blood loss and bleeding under the skin (bruising).
This is not helped by his Autism, he's blissfully unaware of the danger and tends to stim and throw himself around.
MY WISHLIST
1. I am firstly trying to raise funds for a service dog, we have already raised the deposit, but we still need to find another $2000 by 15th December. A service dog can apply pressure during a meltdown/stimming episode and can provide some balance whilst walking. Anthony can be tethered to the Service dog to prevent him from bolting along with many other tasks. The dog will be specially trained for Anthony's needs and alerting to stroke symptoms, low blood pressure and alert if he gets out of bed at night! GOAL ACHEIVED
2. Second on my wishlist is a Safe shaded play area where Anthony can play without restrictions through fear of injury. It would be a truly magical gift to see my daughter just relax for the very first time in the knowledge that Anthony can play safely.
GOAL CHANGED due to change in personal circumstances.
New Goal
Due to separation, my daughter is now a single parent and can not afford the $700 a week it costs for the service dog training.
we have been selling some of our farm equipment and personal items to raise funds for the training.
So far we have raised $3600 which will only pay for 5 weeks training, we are a long way short of the $54,600.00 for a further 18months training.
Both of these things would be life changing for this little boy, and for his family.
To see my grandson with his big smile playing on a custom built slide would be magical.
He loves slides, but someone needs to lift him up and help him down. My daughter now struggles to lift her son. I just don't think there could be anything more fulfilling than to watch him play with the other children independently.
Anthony’s Medical History
On 11 July 2010- Anthony was born with Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome (HRHS). Half of his heart didn't develop in utero. He would need to undergo 3 main stages of surgeries called the 'fontan' procedure which redirects the blood to the one developed side/chambers of the heart. There have been many other exploratory surgeries & procedures.
-His1st Surgery - 4days old Anthony was put onto blood thinners to reduce the risk of stroke because of the heart condition.
Anthony underwent 5 surgeries before he was 4 years old.
-At 1 yr Anthony was showing signs of delay, not walking etc.
And if this was not enough to deal with.... our worst fears were realised when at 2 years old he had a stroke and lost the use of his left side.
Anthony was diagnosed with Autism & global developmental delay shortly after. It was a lot to take in.
He had to undergo intensive physiotherapy, speech & occupational therapy to relearn how to sit up, eat, move his arm and leg to hopefully eventually walk.
-At 3yrs old he had his final major surgery, he was in ICU with a machine breathing for him. He almost couldn't be taken off of life support. When he did come out of ICU he had a long wait on the ward with tubes draining fluid from around his lungs and then his hair fell out from the stress. That one was the toughest on him and it was the first time his smile was lost.
Anthony is now 5yrs old and has come a long way proving his strength, determination and resilience is as strong now as ever.
He's walking using a leg brace to support his weak leg. Beginning to talk and even use his hand!
He continues with regular therapists for his speech, physio & OT and his mum is just devoted to helping him achieve all he can.
He's still taking blood thinners to avoid blood clots and
also has to avoid getting too warm.
Which means being very careful he doesn't hurt himself.
Autism- stims/stimming. Flapping arms, head banging. The world's too overwhelming with noise & people.
One day in the future Anthony's heart will start to deteriorate. It's working twice as hard as a regular heart. We'll have to deal with that when it comes