The Lil’ Warrior mission is to ease the financial burden of care in order to help our families focus on what is truly important – their children. We are a non-profit organization partnering with communities to provide financial assistance for families with children who are battling significant medical challenges.
MEET A FEW OF THE LIL’ WARRIOR BENEFICIARIES
Diagnosis: Down Syndrome, Leukemia (ALL), Philadelphia Chromosome- very rare
Present Condition: Good. April or May will be hospitalized for 60 days for more chemotherapy.
Daily Medications: Synthroid, Gleevac(chemo), NG tube, Zofran, special diet. She has a port for her medications along with NG tube.
Day in the Life: Lizzy loves anything Disney, Blues Clues, playing kitchen, games on her ipad.
CHARITY BENEFACTOR SINCE 2018
Five days after he was born we were awakened at 3:30 in the morning to phone call letting us know that his intestines had perforated and a surgeon was on his way in to perform an emergency surgery. They asked us not to come in but wait for his phone call. When the surgeon called he explained Nathaniel was too small and fragile for the surgery he needed. Nathaniel needed to weigh around 4 pounds, so instead of a single surgery he would have to undergo three surgeries on his intestines.
Weeks turned into months as Nathaniel got bigger and stronger in the NICU. We watched for signs or clues to try and determine if the brain bleed was going to have long term lasting effects. Everything appeared to be normal except that we would seldom finish a bottle, so in May of 2017 he had a feeding tube surgically implanted so that we could bring him home. On May 30, 2017 after 153 days in the NICU Nathaniel was finally able to come home.
As the months continued at home we noticed that Nathaniel wasn’t reaching milestones we would expect, but we continued to hope he was simply delayed due to how premature he was. In October we noticed that he didn’t appear to have control over his eye movement so we took him to see an eye specialist. She let us know that his eyes weren’t the problem and that the issue was with his brain and referred us to a neurologist. After seeing the neurologist we finally had our answer…Nathaniel’s brain bleed when he was born had damaged his cerebellum. As a result he has Ataxic Cerebral Palsy which will always impair his coordination, balance, and eye movement.
Although cerebral palsy is an unchanging condition Nathaniel is still too young to know for certain how severe his condition is and how his life will be affected. At 22 months old he can’t walk or talk and he is legally blind even with glasses.
Nathaniel has four therapy sessions a week and we can now see him trying to complete tasks even when his body won’t let him. He’s learning he has limitations and he gets frustrated when he can’t do what his brain is telling him to do, but he is a true fighter. He tries until his body is too tired to keep going.
CHARITY BENEFACTOR SINCE 2018
Diagnosis: Febrile Seizures, Bruxism, Parasomnia, Sleep Apnea and Un-diagnosed Seizures
CHARITY BENEFACTOR SINCE 2019
I can’t even describe the emotion I felt at that moment but before I could “feel” anything they took us straight up to the pediatric oncology floor and treatment started right away. Ryan has endured three years of chemotherapy, spinal taps, bone marrow biopsies, and countless medications. He has been in remission since 6/16/16 and his end of treatment date is in five months! We ended up moving back to Fort Worth soon after Ryan was diagnosed to be closer to the hospital and have been surrounded by a great community that we are so grateful for. We know that Ryan is healed by the ultimate physician, Jesus Christ.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way and continues to #RootForRyan!!!!