Emmanue'l Franklin and Family

Emmanue'l Franklin, affectionately known as Manny, born 8/19/01 started suffering with severe asthma episodes from the ages of 6-9. He is the 3rd of 5 children had by his dad Mr. Errol Franklin and mom Mrs. Enomwoyi Franklin. In April 2011, at the age of 9, life, as we all knew it, was over. After being on several high doses of steroids for a lengthy amount of time and a couple rounds of a shot of a new asthma medication, Emmanue'l began to experience severe pain all over his body. The pain was so severe that his condition grew worse and he eventually became bedridden and deathly ill. After spending 2 years being bounced around from one conventional doctor to the next, INCLUDING top medical pediatric facilities, those doctors refused to accept the fact that the medication had caused Emmanue'l's severe chronic pain and suffering. His mom Enomwoyi Franklin advocated for him during every doctors visit, telling doctors - who refused to listen - that her son was in excruciating pain from the high doses of asthma meds. Emmanue'l's mom knew that her sons condition was dire because she could see life fading from his entire being. During this time, Emmanue'l's mom and a host of other family and church family members had been praying and seeking God for a natural health doctor that could help reveal and heal whatever damage that was going on inside Emmanue'l and prayerfully save his life. Emmanue'l's severe chronic pain also prevented him from staying in school which eventually led his mother to seek an alternative form of education for him. Emmanue'l's mom heard about K12.com an online charter school and soon enrolled Emmanue'l who started 7th grade at Michigan Virtual Charter Academy. It was here that Emmanue'l and his mom met a wonderful teacher by the name of Mrs. Jennifer Fulton. Emmanue'l and his mom divinely learned that Mrs. Jennifer Fulton also suffered with chronic pain and she recommended they go see her chronic pain doctor. For the first time in 2 years since the inception of Emmanue'l's pain, someone HEARD and UNDERSTOOD our dilemma.  After the wonderful visit with the chronic pain doctor, since Emmanue'l was a pediatric case, the chronic pain doctor recommended we go see Dr. Tony Boggess of Natural Balance Wellness because of his Biomedical Rehab approach to helping heal cases where conventional doctors have lost hope. The care and healing received by Dr. Boggess was like none other...the prayers of Mrs. Enomwoyi Franklin, Emmanue'l's mother were finally being answered. It was here where Dr. Boggess took 13 vials of blood from Emmanue'l and had urine and saliva samples sent to a lab. The shocking news came back that Emmanue'l's neurological system and immune system were severely damaged and his mitochondria were severely damaged as well. To put it lightly, Dr. Boggess, in the easiest terms he could come up with, stated that Emmanue'l was a touch and go situation and that Emmanue'l was deathly ill. He described that due to the iatrogenic (medically caused illness) Emmanue'l had suffered with what could be called a neuro-immune type of dysfunction which was resulting in a severe case of chronic pain. The care and treatment received by Dr. Boggess saved Emmanue'l's life and although Emmanue'l still suffers with severe chronic pain, the many in-depth biomedical treatments lessened the severity of Emmanue'l's pain to a cope-able level. Before receiving care from doctor Boggess, Manny used to say that his pain level was 100 ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10! Now he says it is a 7 out of 10...which is still a significant amount of pain but has become livable for Manny. Emmanue'l's dad Errol Franklin and mother Enomwoyi Franklin used most of their family's funds towards manny's care and ran up every credit card they had in order to get the care they received at Natural Balance Wellness because none of the care was covered by health insurance. Emmanue'l's mom had to quit her job as a mathematics teacher to care for Manny and his 4 other siblings while dad spent most of his time at work trying to bring in money to feed our family and help make ends meet. Due to spending most of the money on the care needed to save Manny's life, the family's financial situation was very dire at times. For several years, Emmanue'l's mom went to free food giveaways at churches on a weekly basis, free kids toy drives during the holidays and shopped for clothes from thrift stores. The family had to eventually stop going to Natural Balance Wellness because they literally ran out of money and were in high credit card debt due to buying household needs and paying for Manny's health care needs. Emmanue'l's dad has had to work his regular job and several other jobs throughout the years to make ends meet. We are seeking funds to help Emmanue'l return to get more care at Natural Balance Wellness, to recover whatever funds we can for the family that were used in the process of paying for Manny's care out of pocket, and to possibly help Emmanue'l start college and maybe even pay for him to go to college this coming fall and for as long as needed. Thank you all for being attentive to our story. We know that although Emmanue'l and our family has suffered for the last 9 years of his life (half his life up to this point), Emmanue'l's conventional doctors never intended to bring this much pain and agony upon him, they were only doing what they medically knew would help with his breathing issues. We pray that as we share our story and are helped, our story may help someone else who may be going through a similar situation.