Help Indra cover Ryan's hospitalisation
Hey everyone! the tall boy in the photo is Ryan!
The other photo shows just how drastic his weight loss became, they were taken only 7 days apart!
He just turned 15 last week and he is known for his great heart, politeness, and the great support he is to his mom, Indra.
Ryan was hospitalised for the first time in his life on the 25th of July, admitted through ER as he couldn’t walk and had suffered drastic and severe weight loss.
Ryan is a great kid! He has a job in his village at a pub washing dishes, helps at home, plays the piano and the guitar, minds his brothers, cooks, reads... an A+ boy!
Last week after feeling sick for a while Ryan fainted and was taken to CUH for testing and treatment.
I will quote mom's own way of telling it!
"So he is being transferred to Crumlin for confirmation of a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, which is a lifelong autoimmune disease that affects the bowels. Never Ill before, never even been in hospital before.
Ryan is always helping and volunteering with tidy towns and is much loved by all, my gentle giant. He never complains so when he literally couldn’t walk after trying to pretend he was fine for way too long I just had to take him into hospital. He had severe and sudden weight loss, dehydration and needed fluids for 7 days but is now slowly getting better, and slowly realising what it means to go from never being ill to facing a lifelong condition for which there is no cure.
The staff in CUH is fantastic and once we’re home we will be fundraising for them all as they deserve something extra in return for their kindness, dedication, smiles and hard work.”
Mum has been on a chair next to him 10 nights in a row, also up and down to try and ensure her two youngest are looked after and safe. She is very lucky with good friends and neighbours locally as a single parent with no family living close by.
One sister who lives in Clare, was able to collect the two younger ones after 6 days of up and down to and from CUH.
To add to it all, her car broke down on day 4, with the mechanic suspecting it needs a new gearbox.
Another neighbour jumped in and loaned her car so that they were able to travel to Crumlin rather than ending up with no way back home once Ryan will be discharged.
Indra is a single parent of three, a brave woman, super hardworking, always positive and first to help others out and a super active volunteer always ready to help and with a good eye for improvements to be done wherever she lives!
She is not on any kind of welfare as she works full time (so no medical card).
She has been 10 days next to Ryan and while the company she works for will cover 40% of procedure costs through insurance, the rest will have to be covered by Indra alone.
Not to mention the added cost of car repairs, travel and extra bits that come with prolonged hospitalisations. Please help us help Ryan and Indra!
We want him to keep having the medical attention he needs and for his mum to be able to have one less thing to worry about! Thank you all for your support and kindness!
Update: Ryan has now been discharged from Crumlin but has a long road ahead of him still. He has now also been diagnosed with a second auto-immune: Eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) which is a chronic, allergic inflammatory disease of the oesophagus and also an auto-immune disease.
His younger brother, not wanting to cause a fuss, ignored a toothache during Ryan's second week in hospital and waited until his face started swelling up to mention it. He is now on antibiotics for a severe abscess in his jaw and will require expensive dental treatment also.
