Wheelchair Van for Little Hal

Little Hal is a three year old twinless twin. He and his brother Benjamin were diagnosed with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) at around 17 weeks gestation. At 19 weeks gestation, we were told that Benjamin no longer had a heart beat. As a result of his brother's death, Little Hal suffered severe brain damage.

The areas of his brain affected have caused epilepsy and Cerebral Palsy. Because of this, he is bound to a wheelchair, and is wholly dependent on his parents for everything. Every day he works very hard to improve his situation, but he is unable to feed himself effectively, crawl, sit on his own, or even play with toys the way other children his age do.

He is nearly four years old, and he is getting bigger. He will soon outgrow his car seat. The car we currently have is a four door sedan, too small to fit a wheelchair into. Because of this we have no choice but to look for a van.

While we can rely on insurance to provide coverage for conversion (adding a ramp or lift, wheelchair tie-downs, etc), we are required to purchase the vehicle itself on our own. In order for insurance to cover said accommodations, the vehicle we purchase must be within five years old with under 50,000 miles on the odometer. Such a vehicle is outside of our financial capabilities.

Hal has many doctors appointments throughout the year, and because he is growing, it is getting increasingly difficult to get him in and out of the car. On top of this, our car's heating and defrost system have stopped working. With winter looming ahead, living in New York, we are now posed with an urgent need to get a van as soon as possible.

As a family, we try very hard to make due with what we have, asking for outside help as little as possible. In this situation, we find ourselves hard pressed in finding a solution to this problem without doing just that. We know the goal is a high number, but we would not be asking if we didn't need to.

If you have an excess and are able to give even a little bit toward this cause, it would be extremely helpful, and we would be forever grateful. Thank you in advance for even taking the time to read this. Little Hal thanks you too!