Help Franco fight for his eyesight

A few months ago, Franco complained to his parents about back pain. After a visit to their pediatrician, Dr. Purchase, he immediately sent Franco for an emergency MRI scan and admitted him to St. Georges hospital, where he had to undergo further testing. The MRI revealed that Franco has disc degeneration with loss of disc signal and early onset osteoarthritis. The neurosurgeon that was assigned to Franco's case, told them that the next step would usually be surgery but Franco is too young for such an extensive surgery and the only option for now is to abstain from any strenuous activity. When they thought the worst news was over, Franco started complaining about poor and blurry vision in his left eye. They immediately scheduled an appointment with Spec Savers thinking he might need glasses. After the examination, the optometrist alerted them to a more severe situation than they thought and immediately referred them to an eye specialist.

At the Eye and Laser clinic, they met with Dr. Jacoby who then started a series of tests on Franco to determine the damage to the eye. Dr. Jacoby then confirmed extensive damage to Franco's eye sight. His left eye has a visual acuity 0.2 secondary to high myopia and has extensive vitreous degeneration with retinal tears. It was also confirmed that the right eye only has light perception visual acuity secondary to funnel shaped retinal detachment with proliferative vitreoretinopathy. In basic terms, he has no sight in his right eye. This is caused by his left eye, which deteriorates every day as it takes the strain off the right eye. An emergency operation was scheduled to try and save the left eye from total loss of sight and to try and save what was left of his right eye. The operation was unsuccessful due to the extensive damage and during the operation it was discovered that the retinal detached completely and not just in the front as originally suspected. After a second attempt at saving Franco's eyesight with surgery, this too was unsuccessful. Franco needs to undergo a third surgery to replace current oils in his eye with new ones and to look for any new retinal tears.

Dr. Jacoby did more research and he recommended that the next step would be for Franco to get tested for Sticklers Syndrome. He determined that Franco's back problems and eyesight could be connected as these are symptoms of Sticklers.

This is where we need the help of close friends and the community. Due to his previous medical conditions, his parents and family have exhausted their medical aid and will now be required to pay for all further testing and surgeries themselves. As parents of what they thought were 3 healthy kids, this news has been devastating to Gillean and Renier. Franco has always been a happy kid with absolutely no signs or symptoms of poor eyesight or any other genetic disorders.

"We have, from a very young age, given him the nickname Champ because of his strong and courageous personality, we believe that he WILL defeat every difficult path before him. Jer 29:11" Gillean.

Franco needs to get tested ASAP to confirm if he has Sticklers Syndrome and in order for him to get these tests done they would need a total of +/- R30,000 (South African Rand) to pay for the testing. The longer we wait, the more severe his condition gets and the Dr. won't be able to treat him until it is confirmed.

We would never want to ask for money from others as we know that every family has their own financial stresses to face, but if you could help in any way possible it would be greatly appreciated.

We are more than willing to share any Doctors reports with anyone who has questions regarding his medical condition.