Little Jackson Anderson
Hi everyone!
I have started this fund to help a dear friend of mine and her sweet boy Jackson. They are two of the strongest people I know but everyone needshould help and lately these two REALLY need our generosity. If you can't afford to donate PLEASE share so that someone you know can .
Here is their story
As most of you know, Jackson was born with a tiny little broken heart. He was diagnosed with his AVSD before he was even born, and he had his first surgery at 3 months old. Within a few weeks, Jackson suffered from complications from his first surgery and was airlifted back to Children's Hospital immediately. They put in a permanent pacemaker that he will need for the rest of his life, because one side of his heart is 100% reliant on the pacemaker and does not work on its own.
During this time, when Jackson was only a few months old, a very dear family friend Cheri hosted a fundraiser for him. The plan was for this fund to go into an education fund for Jackson. But what his family did not know, was that he would need multiple more surgeries, and they ended up needing to use that fund get his family through his third and fourth surgeries.
Jackson is now 3.5 years old. He has had many other hospitalizations aside from surgery, making it difficult for his mother to go back to work until recently. He has had his mitral valve worked on when he was 7 months old, and then had an artificial valve put in to replace his mitral valve when he was almost 2. About a month ago, his cardiologist team noticed that there was an issue with one of the leads for Jackson's pacemaker. They went for further testing and found out that he would need pretty much immediate surgery to replace this lead. They booked Jackson in for surgery the following week. Rachael and her mum, Elaine, both took over a week off work with this very short notice surgery to take Jackson over. Pre-op was on a Monday, and surgery was scheduled for Wednesday. After a very long 10 hour day in pre-op appointments on Monday, they received the news at the end of the day that the surgery would have to be postponed because he tested positive for influenza, and their family was sent home. Jacksons 5th heart surgery will now take place April 10th, and Rachael will need to take even more time off work to be with her son.
Rachael has been working very hard to make ends meet. She was not able to recover any of the 10 days worth of work she had to forfeit and lost out on a lot of wages for basically no reason. She works full time at Maple Bay Marina, does network marketing on the side trying to support herself and Jackson. She has recently separated from her husband Josh, and they have decided to put their house up for sale. This time is a very stressful time for their family, and it has been extremely financially difficult for Rachael to make ends meet while having to take so much time off for surgery. I am reaching out to friends and family of theirs to help lessen the burden in this time, so that she does not have to continue to worry about how she will pay the bills while Jackson recovers.
