Help Langston: Fight Cardiac Hypertension

Langston Edmond is a two-year-old from Washington DC.  He will be three years old in October. He has a loving mother and father, adoring aunt, caring grandparents, a godfather and nurturing an extended group of family friends. He is a little brother in age only and loves his older brother Lincoln. He is a bruiser.

On 2/12/19 Langston was admitted to the PICU for acute respiratory failure and what seemed like symptoms from pneumonia he was diagnosed and treated for 2 weeks prior. Upon further diagnosis, he was found to have pulmonary hypertension secondary to hypoplastic vasculature. The is contributed to acute systolic right heart failure, acute hypodermic respiratory failure, primary pulmonary hypertension, respiratory failure, right heart failure with reduced right ventricle function and right ventricular hypertrophy.

In laymen’s terms, his pulmonary arteries are many times thinner than they should be at his age. The term for this is Elastine arteriopathy. Which creates high pressures in the heart and lungs which if left untreated will ultimately end in cardiac Failure in early childhood.  Langston’s condition is very rare in that most children born with Langston pulmonary condition, outwardly exhibit physical signs of dwarfism and sensitivity to light as well as learning disabilities. This condition is called Williams Syndrome. Langston doesn’t exhibit any of the outward symptoms, but his pulmonary and heart condition led doctors to believe that he may have had William syndrome based on preliminary tests.

His surgery is scheduled for the 26th and the family must be there two days before to check in and be reevaluated.

The surgery will take place at Lucille Packard branch of the Stanford University Hospital and will be performed by Dr. R. Thomas Collins. He was referred by Dr. John T Berger of Children’s Hospital in Washington DC for this procedure.

Langston is a typical rambunctious and inquisitive little boy. He is more of a bruiser than his brother and has always been a little chunky.  Oddly, he has always had some form of congestion and we thought that it was simply an offshoot of his eczema/asthma connection.  Every cold took a long time to go away and we began to regularly use the nebulizer and albuterol for treatment.

What we didn’t know was that all of those symptoms masked his underlying illness and had it not been a perfect alignment of the right doctor being at the right hospital at the right time, we probably would have lost our baby.

Now the next phase in this journey is for Langston to have his surgery and then address his recovery and long-term physical health.
We need your help.  We need your prayers, transference of healing energies and financial assistance. Although employed and having insurance, the cost of the deductible, transportation, lodging,and food for the next six weeks is formidable. Please become a part of team Langston and help us raise the $15,000 that the family needs to support this surgery and rehabilitation in California and to return home safely.

We are working with hospital officials in DC and California to identify lodging partners for circumstances such as this, however, it has been made clear that we should work in earnest to cover the cost ourselves.
Our need is real, our circumstances dire, and our will, resolute.  God has brought us into your lives at this moment because it is ordered and destined. Help us and help our baby.

Update March: Recently Langston’s Mother has had to take unpaid leave from work, and Langston’s Father has had to resign from work as an Electrical Apprentice in order to make time for all of Young Langston’s appointments, labs and his general care. Along with the Doctors informing that post-op in Stanford would be at least 3-4 weeks. In light of these new developments we saw it necessary to account for these costs and raise the goal by 10k. We deeply appreciate your thoughts, contributions, words, and prayers. We couldn’t express enough how thankful we are for such genuine support in our dire time of need.