Support Jhames' Fight Against Aplastic Anemia

Hi friends & fam,

First off - thank you. Thank you for your unwavering support, love and prayers towards my family & I these past three months. I’ve thought about this for some time now and prayed over creating this page. A little back story:

On Saturday, March 23rd, my 7-year-old brother, Jhames, was taken to urgent care due to a reoccurring nose bleed that took longer than normal to stop. After some tests, he was quickly admitted to the hospital due to a dangerously low platelet count of 2,000 (normal range is around 100,000) along with a critically low red & white blood cell count. He was given a blood transfusion right away. We were then told that his bone marrow had stopped functioning and was no longer producing new blood cells making him immunocompromised.

A day later he was put under general anesthesia for bone marrow testing. The results confirmed a condition called Aplastic Anemia. This condition is rare and caused by damage in the bone marrow, which meant further testing was needed to determine the cause and then a treatment plan.

By this time, Jhames had been in the hospital for a week. He was stable enough to go home and wait for the rest of his test results, so his doctor discharged him right before the Easter weekend. Jhames still needed to return every 3-4 days for a blood transfusion, and if his fever got worse he would need to be re-admitted. Unfortunately, he only got to stay home for three days before his fever rose and was re-admitted back into the hospital. Jhames also had a PICC line placed in his arm to help prevent further trauma from all of the needle poking.

Once his test results came back, it confirmed evidence of the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) in his bone marrow. Jhames’ doctors wanted to put him on immunosuppressant medicine, but then God gave us a miracle. The EBV was no longer detectable. His bone marrow still wasn’t functioning, but it was said that it could take up to six weeks before we saw progress. If his bone marrow wasn’t working by then, the next step would be to consider a transplant. So in the meantime, they continued to treat his ongoing fever with antibiotics and any infections that grew. In the past month, Jhames has had his tonsils drained due to an infection, a bronchoscopy to remove fluid from his lungs due to pneumonia, and a lung biopsy. He was also discharged a second time when his fever broke, but re-admitted several days later due to another fever.

We are now at the 23 week mark and Jhames is on the path to receiving a bone marrow transplant. My 10-year-old brother, Jeydin, is a match but we are still praying for a miracle. Jhames is being transferred to another hospital in California we will have to travel. It may also take several months to recover post-op, which means we’ll be looking into lodging and transportation nearby. Some of us may have to periodically travel back and forth for work and other priorities as well.

Your donation or choice to share this page is truly appreciated and we are beyond thankful for your generosity and support. ❤️

—The Fajardo Family