Wishes for Will

Only a few short but very long 2 weeks ago Will was suddenly taken by ambulance to the IWK in Halifax which was when he and his family learned that Will was critically ill and was in heart failure.  William is currently stable and  being treated by a wonderful team of Doctors and Nurses and receiving excellent care. His Mom & Dad (Corey & Jillian Drake) have been by his side every step of the way. They have set up air mattresses in his hospital room so they can sleep there at night. To say this has been utter heartbreak for us would be understating it. This has rocked our close family.

To give you some background, Will had been feeling ill since school let out.  The symptoms he showed were very much like growing pains and a summer cold but he was also losing weight. Will's parents could see he was not getting better so they decided on July 19th to take him to see a doctor.  Before they left the house that morning Will collapsed in the entryway and Jillian had to call 911. The paramedics came and took William to the QEH by ambulance. While there they did a lot of tests and blood work but could not determine a cause to his illness and told his parents it was probably something viral that would run it's course. A referral was also made to a pediatrician at that time. Several weeks later the pediatric clinic requested Will come in for blood work. A few days later the pediatrician he was assigned to asked for more blood work and also to see Will. When his pediatrician did a physical exam she noticed a heart murmur and also thought some of Will's other organs were enlarged. From there a decision was made to send him to IWK by ambulance immediately. 

Will has been diagnosed with Pericarditis and Endocarditis, which was caused either by a bacterial infection inside his heart, Rheumatic Fever or both . The infection has damaged his aortic and mitral valves causing a lot of leakage in his valves and enlarging his heart.

Will has been on round the clock IV and oral medications to reduce the fluid in and around his heart and antibiotics to treat the infection. 

Once the infection is gone and the swelling and fluid are dissipated, he will have to undergo a very difficult open heart surgery to replace his aortic valve and either repair or replace his mitral valve. The doctors are estimating this will be happening in 4-6 weeks.

This course of pre-surgery , surgery and after surgery treatment will require stays in hospital and many trips to and from the IWK for the Drake Family. To anyone that has had unexpected medical costs come their way you can imagine how hard it can be on a family. Jillian & Corey have 2 younger sons ( Sam & Matthew) who are missing their big brother and Mom & Dad. Sam & Matthew both have medical needs of their own which requires out of pocket costs associated with those needs. This is one strong, brave family who has dealt with a lot that has come their way. So I'm asking anyone who might be able to lend support to please do so. Feel free to share this as many times as you can. Any and all help from donations, to shares, to prayers will help.