My son Gavin is only 6 years old. He complained of his eye hurting and at the time, it was just irritated. As the day went on, his pupil became very dilated and the color of his eye turned a forest green color (he has baby blue eyes). I took him to the children’s emergency room and the first night all they said was maybe pink eye and sent him home with antibiotic eye drops. The next day, he started throwing up severely, holding his head, screaming in pain, yelling, "My eye and head hurt so bad and I can’t see anything but black." I rushed him back to the hospital and after many tests and hours sitting there, we finally received some answers. The ophthalmologist on call came in and ran many more tests, coming to the conclusion that my son’s retina was fully detached along with his medulla. (Gavin is already legally blind and deaf).

The ophthalmologist referred us to a retina specialist. In the state of Ohio, there are only 3 specialists here. The one we chose to go to is in Columbus at Ohio State Hospital. He ran even more in-depth tests, including taking pictures of the inside of his eyes, which confirmed what the ophthalmologist had said prior.

The retina specialist said he could fix this in his eye but it will take at least two surgeries to fix. (The first surgery will be very lengthy as the doctor has to redo his entire eye basically). In between these surgeries, we will have at least 8 doctor’s appointments to ensure the healing process is going correctly and no infection occurs at any time.

Gavin’s doctor also said he was willing to fix his eyesight to where he would only need glasses for reading. We were in shock! For 3 years, we have been told this was never possible and eventually, he would just go blind.

His doctor said if we were willing to travel and make every single appointment, he was willing to do the job. Obviously, we didn’t think twice about these decisions and just want the best for our baby who has already undergone 11 surgeries in his short 6 years of life for other complications that don’t relate to this.

With this all being said, I work as much as I possibly can and support my family proudly. I’m not one to ever ask for help but with the gas it’s going to cost driving to and from appointments, hotel stays (first surgery they will release Gavin as long as surgery went well and the next morning we have to be right back in the office to make sure nothing happened, so staying in a hotel would be easier than dragging him back and forth right after a huge surgery), moving my schedule around at work and missing hours, to making sure he has all the medical supplies he needs, medical bills, etc. I put my pride to the side this time and am asking for help. Even if that’s just sharing this or sending your love and prayers for my baby! We all, especially Gavin, appreciate everything!

If you don’t know Gavin, he lights up the room with his huge personality, he loves playing silly tricks on people, he makes so many friends everywhere he goes, he loves everyone and everyone loves him! ❤️

Thank you! (All these proceeds are going straight to a private account for Gavin’s needs, trips to get to and from appointments, medical supplies, etc.)