“Stem Cells for a Superhero: Nicholas’ Journey”

My name is Casey Ridge and I am raising funds for my nine year old son, Nicholas, to be able to receive stem cell therapy for nonverbal, Autism.

“Sometimes real superheroes live in the hearts of little children fighting big battles.”  

Our superhero son, Nicholas, has been fighting his battle of nonverbal, Autism for most of his young life. From a distance or through photographs and first encounters Nicholas seems to be perfectly normal. His disability appears discrete and insignificant to the untrained eye. And for that reason people probably ask, how debilitating can it actually be?  

To answer that question: it is absolutely devastating and almost invincible at the same time. At the age of two and a half Nicholas began to lose his receptive and expressive language. Prior to this he had about an 80-100 word vocabulary and in the matter of months it was gone. Just like that the sweet sound of “I love you” was a distant memory, a memory we will hold on to forever and continue to pray we hear again. The communication deficit alone is debilitating and devastating. There is nothing we want more in this life than to have a conversation with Nicholas. Our baby has NEVER asked us a single question. Typical developing children ask approximately 300 questions a day. So just think of how many questions your children, your friends' children or your nieces/nephews ask/asked when they were younger and picture it NEVER happening. How do they learn about people, emotions, the world around them, how things work, the simple everyday questions that we all take for granted have never been asked.  

We have been researching stem cell therapy for Autism for quite some time now and are hopeful it could significantly increase Nicholas’ quality of life and possibly even give him his voice back. The thought of Nicholas being able to communicate verbally is incredible and we will never give up that hope for him. I see how bad our little boy wants to speak. There is so much his little mind wants to say to us but he is unable to do so and it is heartbreaking.

 Unfortunately, stem cell therapy for Autism isn’t FDA approved in the United States and because of this we are striving for stem cell therapy at Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama.  The second unfortunate part is that it is not covered by insurance. The total cost for the five day procedure is $17,000.  The third unfortunate part is that it takes more than one $17,000 procedure to have the greatest results. Totally our cost to at least $60,000-$80, 000 to hopefully achieve the outcomes we are looking for. We have been attempting for a while now to save this amount of money but as you know life doesn’t make that easy. Which has led me to set up this Go Fund me page to help us get our Superhero the life he deserves. The life that makes his days just a little bit easier, to allow him to tell us if he is in pain, sad about something, happy about something, scared about something, wishing for something and most importantly to be able to tell his little brother how much he loves him. 

Any donation would be greatly appreciated! We thank you in advance from the bottom of our hearts.

Nicholas is the strongest, most determined, hard working little boy I know. He works harder than most every single day just to try and figure out his place in this world. He does countless hours of therapy to do the most simple things that we all take for granted. He is so loving, sweet and smart. HE IS OUR SUPERHERO and through all his struggles he always perseveres and exhibits the most incredible strength of anyone, young or old, that I have come across. We are so grateful for all he has taught us in this crazy thing called life and most importantly we are so lucky he is our son. 

Please consider donating to help Nicholas in his journey!

Thank you,

From a Superhero’s Mom and Dad