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Help Mighty Maximus Swallow Safely!

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5 years ago my son Maximus was born with VACTErl Association. He was born unable to swallow amongst many other anatomical abnormalities. The night he was born the doctors spent hours running tests and in the morning Max had his first of many surgeries and procedures in order to repair his esophagus and other congenital issues. Over the last 5 years we've fought hard to help him gain weight and grow. We've made a lot of changes to make it easy for him to eat solids, to swallow and breathe safely with as little pain and as little hindrance as possible and Max started thriving! 

Recently Max has started having a lot of choking, pain and food getting stuck as he's trying to swallow. We had a scope and discovered that there was no significant narrowing at his previous repair site. Unfortunately, we were given a new diagnosis. Abberant right subclavian artery. ARSA is a very rare condition that affects somewhere between 0.5 and 2% of the population. Relocation surgery, rare as it is, carries a high amount of risk and pediatric relocation is even more rare as the general age groups that experience symptoms are over 40.

The artery that provides blood to Max's right arm grew in the wrong place, it branches directly off of his aorta on the left side and in it's path to the right arm has created a ring around Max's trachea and esophagus. In most cases ARSA is not symptomatic and does not need any treatment... Unfortunately for us, Max's is causing symptoms. It is currently compressing his esophagus which is causing the choking, and will eventually start to significantly compress his trachea causing breathing issues which indicates the need for surgery to relocate the artery. There's a surgeon in Cincinnati who's successfully performed the relocation on a child with the same health issues Maximus has that we are being referred to. 

The funds donated here will go towards our portion of the medical bills - including our out of network out of pocket costs for both 2021 and 2022, flights, hotel stays and expenses, as well as lost wages during our journey to get this ARSA relocation completed. Our family will be forever grateful to anyone who can help us achieve this goal so we can get the treatment needed to help our little boy swallow and breathe safely again.
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Donations 

  • Arthur Stewart
    • $1,000
    • 4 mos
  • Pyeper Walker
    • $5
    • 1 yr
  • Anonymous
    • $250
    • 1 yr
  • Susan Jean
    • $100
    • 1 yr
  • Anonymous
    • $25
    • 1 yr
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Fundraising team: Fundraising team (2)

Nicole Dollarhide
Organizer
Wasco, OR
Sara Thornley
Team member

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