Nathan's Fight for Health and Future

Hello family and friends, with a humble heart I come to you for help. Over the past 4 months, our son Nathan has been struggling with his health. Our boy has always been active in his life. He does soccer, swimming, plays drums, and plays video games as any regular teenager. He also volunteers in his local church using his talent as a musician but also helps with the cameras and live production. He wants to go into the medical field and he is in the Health Professions Program or Health Magnet School at Bel Air High School. He has always dreamed of giving back to his community and one day becoming a physician in our city.

In April of this year, 2024, he had been sick with sniffles and a slight sore throat. Over the following days, out of nowhere, he complained that he had blurry vision and numbness on the left side of his body. The next symptoms we noticed were slurring his words and dropping food, drinks, or saliva from his mouth. The left side of his body became droopy and immobile. We took him to the hospital, and they mentioned things like a stroke and a mass in his brain, but the final diagnosis was viral encephalitis. He had to be hospitalized for 7 days and out of school for the remainder of the school year. My son did get better during the summer, we saw great improvement and we thought this nightmare was behind us. About two weeks ago he started with sniffles and a sore throat, it seemed like a cold yet again. Last Monday, August 19, he texted us from school and told us he had blurry vision. He’s been hospitalized since. Doctors are running tests and trying to figure out what is happening to our son. We are at a loss and can’t figure out what is going on. The best informal diagnosis we have is something called Mogad. This is an autoimmune disease that affects 1-3 out of a million people, it is when your immune system attacks your brain and nervous system causing life-threatening symptoms. He will need to go to the hospital once a month for IVIG treatments and on medication for the rest of his life.

As you can imagine this has taken not only an emotional, mental, and physical toll on our family but especially a financial one. Everything that is donated will go to treatments and other miscellaneous expenses that our son will need long-term. Please share with all your friends and family; all help is greatly appreciated. God bless you!