Support Jesiah and the Gibson Family

This is Jesiah.

Jesiah is a 10 year old in 4th grade. 

He loves legos, playing outside, Minecraft, and reading. 

He loves birding with his grandpa and wants to work with animals in an animal sanctuary when he grows up.

He has 2 brothers; Isaac, a 7th grader with Autism, who loves reading, making comics and being by the ocean, and Abe, an energetic 2-year old who loves the outdoors, being active and hanging out with his grandpa. 

His family lives on Lopez Island where they moved 4 years ago.  His dad, Adam, commutes to Anacortes for work as a field technician/line man for Ziply and his mom, Hannah, works part time as a Family support coordinator for the ECEAP program.


 On Dec 28th, Jesiah was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with Intractable Epilepsy caused by focal cortical dysplasia.
 This means that he is having seizures that are not well controlled by medications.  This is something that he was born with, but was just recently found.  The seizures are caused by a malformation or formation of cells in the temporal lobe of his brain near the language and memory centers.  

     Hannah and Adam are now on a journey with Jesiah and their doctors to determine a treatment plan.  Jesiah and his parents have already spent 10 days in the hospital getting EEGs and MRI’s while doctors worked with various medications to reduce his seizures and stabilize him.  Doctors were able to reduce his seizures from 100 per day down to about 5, through heavy medication he was stabilized enough to go home for now. 

However, their journey is just beginning, and will continue, as they work with neurologists and brain surgeons.  Brain surgery appears to be the next step and best option for Jesiah and his qualify of life.  They will be heading to Seattle Children’s for brain imaging and testing which is needed by neurologists and the brain surgeon before surgery.  Post-surgery they anticipate that Jesiah will need speech and other rehabilitation therapies.  If surgery is not an option (appears unlikely), then Jesiah will be on heavy medications and seen by doctors frequently to try to manage his seizures and the impact of the seizures and side effects of multiple medications.  Jesiah appears to be a good candidate for surgery with a 75-77% success rate of eliminating the seizures or reducing seizures to a manageable state (fewer and less intense medication).

     We are asking you to help support them through financial contributions which helps Hannah and Adam to be able to focus on and support their son, Jesiah, and the rest of the family. There are many financial costs with this for the family due to hospital stays, testing, travel expenses, copays for medical procedures and monthly medication and other costs.  In addition, Adam has had, and will need, to take time off of work and Hannah is taking a long-term unpaid leave from her part time job.

This GoFundMe account is set up by family and friends to support the Gibson family.

Please help us support them.