Help the Kane Family
Donation protected
I’m Nicole, and for the past 8 years I have worked with and gotten to know and love the Kane family.
The Kane family is a beautiful family of 7 (and 3 sweet pups) that have always held a place in my heart. With 5 kids, all with varying degrees of autism and other delays or disorders, the family truly marches to a beat of their own drums. It’s a wonderful home filled with humor, chaos, excitement, and love. Sarah and Brad have worked hard over the past 13 years to create a safe and happy home for their children and thanks to them, it has been just that for the majority of that time.
Sarah, Brad, Maggie, Desmond, Brooke, Noah, and Sawyer have become like family to me.
Over the past year, I have begun working with Desmond directly once again to attempt to help with his behaviors that have become extremely difficult to deal with.
In June of 2020, Desmond had his first inpatient at a stay at a behavioral hospital, due to his unpredictable behavior that occurred due to long building sensitivities to being around his younger sister, Brooke. It seemed as though her very existence was painful for him, and he could no longer contain his overflowing frustrations and emotions.
Since then the family has had to not only change how they live to keep everyone safe and comfortable, but have also tried numerous medications and interventions to help Desmond be more comfortable and the rest of the family be safe.
Sadly, the medications often create paradoxical effects, making him more agitated and impulsive. Because of this, the family has been struggling just to keep him somewhere safe. After another inpatient stay at a different hospital earlier this year, he came home to only be in a worse place than he was prior.
It wasn’t long until the family had to make the decision to bring him to Boston Children's Hospital, where he (thankfully) receives the most appropriate medical care for the kind of crisis he is in, but it is also a 2-hour drive each way for Brad and Sarah to travel. Although Boston Children’s is incredible, this is not a long-term solution and his future placement is still uncertain.
Over the summer, he spent 63 days at Boston Children's Hospital, and was then discharged in the hopes that new medications and interventions could help him live at home with Brooke and the rest of the family. Sadly, a week after coming home, Sarah & Brad had to make the difficult decision to take him back to Boston Children's, as his behaviors began to escalate, creating safety issues. He has now been at Boston Children's for this second stay for a week. Desmond tells us all that he is sick, and he needs a doctor to give him a new brain that doesn’t have voices in it.
Clearly, Desmond’s health crisis is more serious than just autism. He has been diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD, DMDD and most recently OCD/OCPD. All of these things require different kinds of medical or behavioral intervention and are extremely difficult to balance, for anyone, let alone a 12 year old in the middle of puberty.
Residential placement seems the most plausible option for the long term, but this could take several months to find an appropriate place for him to be.
In the mean time, Sarah and Brad have had to take turns driving to and from Boston every day, insuring that Brooke gets to and from school in Marlborough as well as homeschooling and caring for the other 3 children at home.
Not only has this been physically and emotionally taxing but the financial burden has been overwhelming. Between paying for gas, food, tolls, daily parking fees at the hospital as well as babysitting and respite, the family has begun to struggle.
In addition, different treatment options or placements have been recommended to the family but most (if not all) would be out-of-pocket, especially if an inpatient bed opens up out of state.
The bills from Desmond’s 63-day stay at the hospital over the summer have begun to pile up and the new ones from the second stay are rolling in, so the idea of paying out of pocket for treatment seems extremely intimidating.
I have created this gofundme in order to provide them with any help I possibly can, because they deserve it.
Desmond is in a specific situation that seems to fall between the cracks of most mental health or crisis scenarios and because of that, it is unknown what the future holds.
Please donate what you can, and if you cannot afford to help this amazing family, please share this for others to see.
Thank you so much to everyone, in advance, for helping this family during such a difficult time they’ve found themselves in.
The Kane family is a beautiful family of 7 (and 3 sweet pups) that have always held a place in my heart. With 5 kids, all with varying degrees of autism and other delays or disorders, the family truly marches to a beat of their own drums. It’s a wonderful home filled with humor, chaos, excitement, and love. Sarah and Brad have worked hard over the past 13 years to create a safe and happy home for their children and thanks to them, it has been just that for the majority of that time.
Sarah, Brad, Maggie, Desmond, Brooke, Noah, and Sawyer have become like family to me.
Over the past year, I have begun working with Desmond directly once again to attempt to help with his behaviors that have become extremely difficult to deal with.
In June of 2020, Desmond had his first inpatient at a stay at a behavioral hospital, due to his unpredictable behavior that occurred due to long building sensitivities to being around his younger sister, Brooke. It seemed as though her very existence was painful for him, and he could no longer contain his overflowing frustrations and emotions.
Since then the family has had to not only change how they live to keep everyone safe and comfortable, but have also tried numerous medications and interventions to help Desmond be more comfortable and the rest of the family be safe.
Sadly, the medications often create paradoxical effects, making him more agitated and impulsive. Because of this, the family has been struggling just to keep him somewhere safe. After another inpatient stay at a different hospital earlier this year, he came home to only be in a worse place than he was prior.
It wasn’t long until the family had to make the decision to bring him to Boston Children's Hospital, where he (thankfully) receives the most appropriate medical care for the kind of crisis he is in, but it is also a 2-hour drive each way for Brad and Sarah to travel. Although Boston Children’s is incredible, this is not a long-term solution and his future placement is still uncertain.
Over the summer, he spent 63 days at Boston Children's Hospital, and was then discharged in the hopes that new medications and interventions could help him live at home with Brooke and the rest of the family. Sadly, a week after coming home, Sarah & Brad had to make the difficult decision to take him back to Boston Children's, as his behaviors began to escalate, creating safety issues. He has now been at Boston Children's for this second stay for a week. Desmond tells us all that he is sick, and he needs a doctor to give him a new brain that doesn’t have voices in it.
Clearly, Desmond’s health crisis is more serious than just autism. He has been diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD, DMDD and most recently OCD/OCPD. All of these things require different kinds of medical or behavioral intervention and are extremely difficult to balance, for anyone, let alone a 12 year old in the middle of puberty.
Residential placement seems the most plausible option for the long term, but this could take several months to find an appropriate place for him to be.
In the mean time, Sarah and Brad have had to take turns driving to and from Boston every day, insuring that Brooke gets to and from school in Marlborough as well as homeschooling and caring for the other 3 children at home.
Not only has this been physically and emotionally taxing but the financial burden has been overwhelming. Between paying for gas, food, tolls, daily parking fees at the hospital as well as babysitting and respite, the family has begun to struggle.
In addition, different treatment options or placements have been recommended to the family but most (if not all) would be out-of-pocket, especially if an inpatient bed opens up out of state.
The bills from Desmond’s 63-day stay at the hospital over the summer have begun to pile up and the new ones from the second stay are rolling in, so the idea of paying out of pocket for treatment seems extremely intimidating.
I have created this gofundme in order to provide them with any help I possibly can, because they deserve it.
Desmond is in a specific situation that seems to fall between the cracks of most mental health or crisis scenarios and because of that, it is unknown what the future holds.
Please donate what you can, and if you cannot afford to help this amazing family, please share this for others to see.
Thank you so much to everyone, in advance, for helping this family during such a difficult time they’ve found themselves in.
Organizer and beneficiary
Nicole Landry
Organizer
Longmeadow, MA
Brad & Sarah Kane
Beneficiary