Medical Expenses for Landon Derrick

About a year ago, Landon started to get really dizzy and fall without any reason. He was just like any other 6 year old boy, he loved to play baseball, go to kindergarten and hang out with his little brother and sister. Alana, his mom, kept pressing the doctors for more answers as to why these things were happening. After many, many doctors' visit's and tests later...May 5th, they were finally faced with some answers. Landon had been diagnosed with a "grape-sized" tumor at the base of his brain stem. It rocked Alana and Matt's world. They met with the neurosurgeon the next day and he said that he did not think that it was cancerous but that it should be removed soon. Landon was in a school play the next week that he did not want to miss. He was able to enjoy the next three weeks before everything would change. His parents did everything they could to help him enjoy that time by just being a kid and getting to do things that he had not been able to do before. During those three weeks, his symptoms began to progress as he would get horrible headaches and vomit from the pressure of the tumor. 

Today, May 26th Landon had the surgery to remove the tumor. The surgery lasted for nearly 7 hours and it was far more complicated than they had originally expected. He had to receive a blood transfusion and they closed him up because his vitals were bad. His little body could not take much more. They did another MRI to evaluate how much of the tumor remains. When they receive those results and pathology returns, we will know when another brain surgery will be done. They do not think the tumor is malignant but they cannot be 100% sure until pathology comes back. Landon will be in the ICU for two weeks and they will keep him intubated for a day or so, which is dependent on his facial movements, speech, body movement, etc. These next few days are very critical. 

This fund is to help the family not have to worry about anything while they deal with the hardest event of their lives. Matt and Alana will miss a lot of work and they still have two children at home that need to be taken care of. Let's come together as a community and take some of the weight off their shoulders. 

Jesus answer and said to him, "What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later."  John 13:7