The Ventress Family resides in Nome Alaska. Silas, the oldest of their five children, has recently had medical needs that require specialist intervention. They will have to travel out of state and would greatly appreciate your assistance covering the costs for this travel and medical advice. You may also donate AK air miles points to Rachel. You can contact me here for her e-mail address and rewards number.

Thank you for helping this special family!

Here are the details on Silas’ condition:

He has been diagnosed with Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, a condition affecting 1 out of 1200 children, and predominantly boys. In this disease, something interrupted blood flow to the femoral head of the hip, causing that bone to die. It is a 3-5 year process for the hip to reroute blood supply to the femoral head and repair the dead bone. Opinions on how to treat this disease vary from conservative (waiting to see until pain becomes unmanageable or life too impeded by the condition in the hope that the body heals without surgery) to aggressive (total hip replacement to resume normal mobility, but understanding that THR would need to be redone every 10-15 years, and weighing if that is the best thing for a child as young as Silas). Because of these varying view points on how to treat the disease, we’ve been advised to seek multiple opinions. Insurance will only pay for 80% of a visit to the closest orthopedic surgeon (which is 500 air miles away from where they live).