Remembering Maxie: Fundraising to cover medical costs

Hi, I’m Neil and I am reaching out to your kind hearts as I raise funds for my nephew Maxie, who have recently passed away in the Philippines due to complications when part of his stomach where his gastronomy (feeding) tube is connected unexpectedly came out. Maxie is turning 2 in June.

Maxie (Max Van Kendrick) was born with Esophageal Atresia, a birth defect of the swallowing tube (esophagus) that connects the mouth to the stomach. His esophagus has two separate sections—the upper and lower esophagus—that did not connect. He underwent a surgery to connect his esophagus and was hospitalized for a few months. He developed a ‘long-gap’ where the gap between the two ends of esophagus is quite wide which required him for another surgery to place a feeding tube directly into the stomach. He was eating through this tube while waiting for his esophagus to grow to undergo another surgery to put it back together.

Due to the difficult medical system in the Philippines, they needed to wait for some time before Maxie was scheduled for his surgery to reconnect his esophagus. His parents finally found a doctor and was scheduled to undergo surgery in June, after his second birthday.

Yesterday, his feeding tube came out together with a big part of his stomach. Unfortunately, they didn’t find an ambulance sooner to bring him to the hospital. My brother needed to go back from work which unfortunately took them 4 hours before they were able to bring Maxie to the hospital. He underwent for another surgery to have his stomach fixed. While the surgery was successful, Maxie had a hard time with his recovery. His condition continued to deteriorate which resulted to his passing.

The cost of the surgery that Maxie underwent, not to mention the funeral costs, is very expensive in the Philippines. I was told the recent surgery itself costed them at least PhP 175,000. We are humbly asking from your generous hearts to give any amount you can to help Maxie’s family cover these costs. Your help, will significantly help to ease some burden my brother’s family is experiencing right now. We greatly appreciate your support in this very difficult time.