Let's Start a "Wiot" for Wyatt!
Donation protected
As many of you may know, Wyatt Black, son of Christoper and Kiona "Dink" Black, has been at Hershey's Children's Hospital fighting for his life with a critical case of Bacterial Meningitis.
Wyatt is a 9th grader at Catoctin High School, he is a bright, courteous young man. He is active in the FFA, plays football, has shown an interest in welding, and hopes to one day persue a career in Ag Engineering. He also works at the family business, Catoctin Mountain Orchard, along with his father, Chris. His mother, Kiona, is a Fire/EMS Instructor. Wyatt has two younger brothers, Nathan and Eaves.
The Black family as a whole are some of the most strong, generous, humble, caring people you could ever meet. The past several months have been challenging for them with various medical issues and the loss of a beloved member of thier family. Now, they have been supporting their son Wyatt, through a very scary battle for his life.
The family has had an outpouring of prayers and well wishes for them so far. This can be seen on many people's facebook pages. Many people have asked if they can help this family out, so, it has been decided that we would start this page. It is unclear how much money will be needed to pay for Wyatt's care, between medical expenses, travel to appointments, etc.
The following is the latest update from Wyatt's mom:
Let me start this update by once again thanking all of you for your tremendous showing of love, empathy & support. I don't have the vocabulary to adequately describe how uplifting it is to know how far our community extends.
Our Wyatt has Bacterial Meningitis that has left him in critical & still unstable condition. Although he has given us purposeful movement & occasionally followed simple commands his left pupil remains fixed & dilated while his right demonstrates sluggish slow response. The pressure inside his brain has remained at pleasingly low levels all day but his blood pressure elevation has resulted in several rounds of sedation. It seems that the B/P increases are directly related to overstimulation during procedures & visitations. This is both good & dangerous at the same time. It shows that Wy is cognizant of his surroundings but needs to be more carefully protected from too many disturbances throughout his day.
In order to help him with this we are asking that tomorrow no one visits the hospital outside of his brothers. They need to see him to help them start to process the reality of our new normal. I will update all of you & ask you to share the word.
Some good news: his EEG reveals normal brain function, all be it slightly slowed, it is normal & there is no seizure activity. We are taking this as a good sign.
The game plan: ending the infection is priority 1 while allowing him as much rest as possible to also begin the healing process. We have been warned that things may get much worse before improving, may not improve at all or another option that I refuse to accept as a possibility.
What you can do:
Please continue to think of us but also please make sure to embrace your days & live them fully! Although I don't get to comment or post all the time Christopher & I read them in ear shot of Wyatt and use them for comfort. We do know through changes in his vital signs & some subtle movements that he hears us.
I will update again sometime tomorrow. In the meantime Eaves wanted to send some sunshine from home to the 3 of us camping out in the PICU. Thought y'all may get a kick out of it, too!
Please share.
Let's start a "Wiot"! You got this Boog!
The family wanted it to be made clear that whatever money is not used for Wyatt's care and expenses related to his illness will be donated to The Ronald McDonald House close to Hershey Medical Center.
Thank you all for considering a monetary donation to help support Wyatt. Stay tuned to facebook as we are also working on other ways, besides monetarily, that we can help the family during this time.
Wyatt is a 9th grader at Catoctin High School, he is a bright, courteous young man. He is active in the FFA, plays football, has shown an interest in welding, and hopes to one day persue a career in Ag Engineering. He also works at the family business, Catoctin Mountain Orchard, along with his father, Chris. His mother, Kiona, is a Fire/EMS Instructor. Wyatt has two younger brothers, Nathan and Eaves.
The Black family as a whole are some of the most strong, generous, humble, caring people you could ever meet. The past several months have been challenging for them with various medical issues and the loss of a beloved member of thier family. Now, they have been supporting their son Wyatt, through a very scary battle for his life.
The family has had an outpouring of prayers and well wishes for them so far. This can be seen on many people's facebook pages. Many people have asked if they can help this family out, so, it has been decided that we would start this page. It is unclear how much money will be needed to pay for Wyatt's care, between medical expenses, travel to appointments, etc.
The following is the latest update from Wyatt's mom:
Let me start this update by once again thanking all of you for your tremendous showing of love, empathy & support. I don't have the vocabulary to adequately describe how uplifting it is to know how far our community extends.
Our Wyatt has Bacterial Meningitis that has left him in critical & still unstable condition. Although he has given us purposeful movement & occasionally followed simple commands his left pupil remains fixed & dilated while his right demonstrates sluggish slow response. The pressure inside his brain has remained at pleasingly low levels all day but his blood pressure elevation has resulted in several rounds of sedation. It seems that the B/P increases are directly related to overstimulation during procedures & visitations. This is both good & dangerous at the same time. It shows that Wy is cognizant of his surroundings but needs to be more carefully protected from too many disturbances throughout his day.
In order to help him with this we are asking that tomorrow no one visits the hospital outside of his brothers. They need to see him to help them start to process the reality of our new normal. I will update all of you & ask you to share the word.
Some good news: his EEG reveals normal brain function, all be it slightly slowed, it is normal & there is no seizure activity. We are taking this as a good sign.
The game plan: ending the infection is priority 1 while allowing him as much rest as possible to also begin the healing process. We have been warned that things may get much worse before improving, may not improve at all or another option that I refuse to accept as a possibility.
What you can do:
Please continue to think of us but also please make sure to embrace your days & live them fully! Although I don't get to comment or post all the time Christopher & I read them in ear shot of Wyatt and use them for comfort. We do know through changes in his vital signs & some subtle movements that he hears us.
I will update again sometime tomorrow. In the meantime Eaves wanted to send some sunshine from home to the 3 of us camping out in the PICU. Thought y'all may get a kick out of it, too!
Please share.
Let's start a "Wiot"! You got this Boog!
The family wanted it to be made clear that whatever money is not used for Wyatt's care and expenses related to his illness will be donated to The Ronald McDonald House close to Hershey Medical Center.
Thank you all for considering a monetary donation to help support Wyatt. Stay tuned to facebook as we are also working on other ways, besides monetarily, that we can help the family during this time.
Organizer and beneficiary
Sarah Gysberts Stevens
Organizer
Thurmont, MD
Kiona Black
Beneficiary
