Heading up a better path
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On Oct 6, 2014, the doctors gave their prognosis to a 14 year old boy and his parents… Elliot is progressing to quadriplegia.
Due to progressive and irreversible curvature of his spine above his cervical fusion, putting pressure on his spinal cord and causing compression and swelling. The family is pursuing second opinions for a solution at this time.
His parents suspected something was wrong the summer of 2004 when Elliot was just 4 yrs old. When he got upset and cried hard, he would stop breathing and pass out, so the testing began. On October 6, 2004, a neurologist diagnosed him with a brain tumor. This was the beginning of a life changing situation.
On October 8, 2004, Elliot went in for brain surgery at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis, IN. While in surgery, they discovered it was in the brainstem and inoperable at that point, but were able to take a biopsy and found it to be benign (praise God!). After being monitored every 3 months by MRI’s, in Dec ’05 the tumor showed growth. For the next six months he underwent weekly chemotherapy until an MRI showed additional growth. He was suffering from symptoms of the tumor: lost ability to cough, difficulty swallowing, and sleep apnea.
On July 20, 2006 Elliot had brain surgery at Riley, and approximately 90% of the tumor was removed. However, due to the surgery he suffered from overall weakness, lost his ability to swallow, his right vocal cord was paralyzed, and he had diminished strength and control of the right side of his body. He remained in ICU for 3 months, until Oct ’06. During that time he had a tracheostomy and a VP shunt placement. Those months proved to be very difficult for the whole family, as Elliot had many highs and lows and multiple complications, some being life threatening. October/November ’06 brought good news and bad. Elliot was moved out of ICU and into Methodist Pediatric Rehab, had a G-tube placement…and more tumor growth. From December ’06 through February ’07, he had proton radiation in Bloomington, and this final treatment stopped the tumor growth.
Since then, Elliot has undergone PT, OT, some speech therapy, regular MRI’s, and was showing much improvement, until a couple years ago. At first, his declination was slow, but then continued more rapidly in his balance, control, strength, and loss of feeling. Summer of 2013, he had a cervical fusion on his C2-C4 at Riley and had a G-tube placement due to loss of swallow. Although his swallow improved and his G-tube was removed, there was further decline in mobility, and much more rapidly. This last summer, 2014, Elliot underwent 60 treatments of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, however it hasn’t yet improved his situation…and Elliot has become wheelchair bound.
Please pray for and help Elliot’s family, who is in need of financial help with medical bills, as well as needing a van that is wheelchair accessible. Even after everything Elliot has been through, he continues to maintain a very positive attitude, and remains as strong as ever in his faith in God. He is an inspiration to anyone he comes in contact with.
Due to progressive and irreversible curvature of his spine above his cervical fusion, putting pressure on his spinal cord and causing compression and swelling. The family is pursuing second opinions for a solution at this time.
His parents suspected something was wrong the summer of 2004 when Elliot was just 4 yrs old. When he got upset and cried hard, he would stop breathing and pass out, so the testing began. On October 6, 2004, a neurologist diagnosed him with a brain tumor. This was the beginning of a life changing situation.
On October 8, 2004, Elliot went in for brain surgery at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis, IN. While in surgery, they discovered it was in the brainstem and inoperable at that point, but were able to take a biopsy and found it to be benign (praise God!). After being monitored every 3 months by MRI’s, in Dec ’05 the tumor showed growth. For the next six months he underwent weekly chemotherapy until an MRI showed additional growth. He was suffering from symptoms of the tumor: lost ability to cough, difficulty swallowing, and sleep apnea.
On July 20, 2006 Elliot had brain surgery at Riley, and approximately 90% of the tumor was removed. However, due to the surgery he suffered from overall weakness, lost his ability to swallow, his right vocal cord was paralyzed, and he had diminished strength and control of the right side of his body. He remained in ICU for 3 months, until Oct ’06. During that time he had a tracheostomy and a VP shunt placement. Those months proved to be very difficult for the whole family, as Elliot had many highs and lows and multiple complications, some being life threatening. October/November ’06 brought good news and bad. Elliot was moved out of ICU and into Methodist Pediatric Rehab, had a G-tube placement…and more tumor growth. From December ’06 through February ’07, he had proton radiation in Bloomington, and this final treatment stopped the tumor growth.
Since then, Elliot has undergone PT, OT, some speech therapy, regular MRI’s, and was showing much improvement, until a couple years ago. At first, his declination was slow, but then continued more rapidly in his balance, control, strength, and loss of feeling. Summer of 2013, he had a cervical fusion on his C2-C4 at Riley and had a G-tube placement due to loss of swallow. Although his swallow improved and his G-tube was removed, there was further decline in mobility, and much more rapidly. This last summer, 2014, Elliot underwent 60 treatments of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, however it hasn’t yet improved his situation…and Elliot has become wheelchair bound.
Please pray for and help Elliot’s family, who is in need of financial help with medical bills, as well as needing a van that is wheelchair accessible. Even after everything Elliot has been through, he continues to maintain a very positive attitude, and remains as strong as ever in his faith in God. He is an inspiration to anyone he comes in contact with.
Organizador
Melanie Hice
Organizador
Hursh, IN
