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Our Mission: Team Brendon strives to meet the needs of families with children who are seriously ill or have suffered hardship such as sexual abuse, catastrophic loss,etc. who are 18 and younger. This is accomplished through the community support of fundraiser events and donations.
Click on any of the tabs to read more about who Team Brendon is helping!
Brendon Brown turned 3 years old on February 17, 2007. Happy, healthy and
ALL boy, he kept mom and dad very busy. On March 9th, just one day after we
closed on our new home, Brendon came home from daycare with rosy cheeks. His
daycare teacher mentioned he had been wiping his arm across his face so we
figured it was just chapped cheeks. By Sunday, his cheeks had become more red
and he had a low grade fever. We figured his allergies were acting up as he had
been outside riding his bike and playing with neighbors. He has mild asthma so
we decided we would take him to the Dr. on Monday morning to see if maybe he
needed an allergy shot or what was causing the rosy cheeks. Dad left for work
around 4:30am on Monday morning. At that time, Brendon was okay. When I woke
him up around 7:00am, he had 2 very large blisters on his cheeks and his fever
was above 103. Both of his eyes were bloodshot. I called his doctor and they
couldn't see him until lunchtime. He acted like he could hardly move. He then
coughed up blood. At that point, I decided we needed to go to the emergency
room. Once admitted, a doctor and a nurse told us that Brendon had a bad case
of the chicken pox. They said he had them in his mouth and that was why he
was spitting up blood. They told us we would probably be sent home and we would
be asked to keep him well hydrated. They decided to get an opinion of a doctor
in pediatrics. As soon as she saw Brendon she said, "He does not have the
chicken pox." She was not sure at first what he had; however, we believe she
made a phone call to her husband who is an infectious disease doctor. It didn't
take her long to determine what it was; however, she too said, it is not
dangerous and we will probably send you home. After numerous attempts (probably
10-15 tries) they were unable to get an IV started. Brendon felt so bad, the
needles did not even bother him. His fever was 104.5 in the emergency room so
we were pushing tylenol and motrin as often as possible. They decided to admit
him since he appeared to be dehydrated so that they could try to give him fluids
and to monitor him.
By Tuesday morning, they were moving him to the Pediatric Intensive Care
Unit at Moses Cone. Brendon was diagnosed with Steven Johnson Syndrome (SJS).
Blisters were starting to cover his body and his skin was peeling. They were
finally able to start an IV to get fluids to him and to get IVIG, which is the
only medication known to possibly help SJS/TENS. By Wednesday, his body was
almost fully covered with blisters and peeling skin - he now had a more severe
and rare form of SJS known as Toxic Epiderman Necrolysis Syndrome (TENS). He
had 2nd degree burns over 95% of his body. We were having to put gloves on,
coat them with vasoline in order to pick him up because his skin was just
falling off when you picked him up. He was starting to be in a lot of pain so
they begin giving him morphine to help keep him comfortable. He was having
trouble breathing so they gave him blow-by oxygen. Thursday, doctors and nurses
spent 3 hours 15 minutes trying to get a PIC line in. They got a single line
in; however, it was removed the next day. That afternoon, his dermatologist
came to see him. His immediate response was, "He needs to be in Chapel Hill."
Brendon's breathing was getting bad b/c his airway was swelling. The following
day Brendon was transported via Care Link ambulance to Chapel Hill. When he
arrived, the doctors were surprised to see just how bad he looked. Within 45
minutes of arrival, Brendon had a breathing tube, feeding tube, was wrapped from
below his face to his toes with a wrap used on burn patients and was in an
induced coma. He had 10 IV's running into a central line in his leg. All the
doctors would say is, "He is very, very sick." He would spend the next 6 weeks
in Pediatric Intensive Care. While in there, he received 8 adult units of
blood. The first week in the hospital, doctors decided it would be best to give
Brendon a tracheotomy as they felt it would be needed for a while and there are
risk involved with leaving a breathing tube in since his airway was involved
with SJS. Most of the 6 weeks were spent very heavily sedated and unaware of
his surroundings. After 6 weeks, we moved to the Burn Unit Intensive Care.
About 2 weeks after going into the Burn Unit, Brendon was able to get a smaller
trach and learned to talk around it. After about 1 1/2 weeks, he got his trach
removed. He was restricted to thick liquids due to having problems swallowing.
He passed his swallow test about 1 week after we got home from the hospital.
Brendon was released from Chapel Hill on May 28, 2007, after spending 77
days in the hospital. The first several weeks home were very rough. We spent
another night in Chapel Hill the following week when Brendon had to have surgery
on 3 of his fingers that were infected. He lost all of his fingernails and
toenails during his illness and we thought the infections were due to ingrown
fingernails. To this date, he only has 2 fingernails; he may not get the others
back. On June 28th we were told that Brendon had lost the vision in his left
eye and the doctors were unsure what would happen to the right eye. We were
told about a Dr. in Miami but not given very much encouragement to go see him.
I contacted the Dr. in Miami (Dr. Tseng) and he got us into his office the
following Monday. He is one of two doctors in the US that specialize in
treatment for these patients. He began steroid injections into the eyes to stop
the inflammation that was "out of control." We went to Miami every 2 weeks for
6 weeks. We saw HUGE improvements during this time. Brendon became much more
playful and was not hiding his eyes as much from the light. He still wears his
hat and sunglasses a lot, but does not depend on them all the time. His right
cornea is clear and his left is much more clear so he does have some vision in
that eye; however, he has not opened them yet. The upper eyelids are attached
to the eyeball so he will have to undergo reconstructive surgery in both eyes.
We are currently waiting for the swelling and inflammation to be gone and the
eyes to be calm before surgery can take place.
The first of August he had to be taken to Chapel Hill and put to sleep to
have a boil drained over his right eye. His oil glands are easily clogged now
so he may continue to have problems with stys and boils. He was placed on
medication after having the boil drained because he tested positive for a staph
infection.
Brendon was placed on a very low dose of oral chemotherapy on September 6,
2007, to help the inflammation in his eyes. We are praying that he will only
have to be on this medication for a very short period of time before he's ready
for eye surgery.
***WARNING: Some images on this site are graphic and may not be suitable for all viewers.
                             
             
Arianna once a very active little girl. She loves cheerleading and she's a
joy to be around. She is a very sweet giving little girl. Her family says she is
very loving and is always worrying about everyone else.
Arianna started having seizures at 7 years old. They started as facial
seizures, and then started changing into a lot of different seizures. The Dr.
called them partial complex seizures. All of our lives have changed since the
seizures started.She was very afraid when one would come on. Sometimes she would
have an aura, she called it a "bad smell". This was one of the ways that we
could prepare for a seizure. Other times we would have no warning. Her seizures
would make her left side go limp and she would thrash around and stare. Her eyes
would look glassy and big. She had 20-25 seizures per month. Her first Dr. tried
a number of different seizure medication combinations. They would help for a
couple of weeks and then we were right back where we started. From this point
the Dr's started doing tests on her. Arianna was referred to Dr. O'Donovan at
wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. we spent 5 days in the Epilepsy monitoring
unit to catch her episodes on film. She had electrodes glued to her head and was
plugged into a unit. While hooked to the unit, they had to catch an episode and
give her a radiation injection so that they could take her for a spect test.
After this, she had to have an MRI. The first MRI, they gave her an injection of
a sedative that she was allergic to and she stopped breathing. The nurse called
CODE BLUE! we nearly lost it! We were so scared for Arianna. For the next MRI
that was done, they decided to put her under anesthesia, put a tube down her
throat and she did very well. Next was a Field Vision Test and a MEG test. These
consisted of putting the electrodes back on her head while she sat and went
through tests. Arianna is such a brave little girl. We don't know if we could
have been able to complete some of the tests that she completed. When all of
these tests were going on, we cut her hair because the glue was getting very
hard to get out.
On August 10, 2007, Arianna went through a right temporal lobe lobectomy.
This was done at Wake Forrest. Her skull was opened up and electrodes were put
inside her head. The hospital staff recorded her seizures at this time. On
August 15, 2007, the Dr's opened up her head again and removed the part of her
brain that was causing her seizures. She suffered complications from the surgery
and lost control of her entire left side. She could not sit up, walk, or really
do much of anything. Her main blood vessel was stretched and knotted up from
surgery. She stayed in the hospital for 18 days and left in a wheel chair. Now
she almost has use of her entire left side. Arianna is in intense therapy to
regain use of her left arm.
She finally went back to school on September 24, 2007 and she was scared at
first but everyone welcomed her back with lots of hugs!
we hope and pray that she is back to 100% soon. It's been a hard journey on
our family with 1/2 the income coming in. Arianna has a little sister and a
little brother. Any help that is offered will be greatly appreciated.
The terrible consequences of a drunk driver!
Team Brendon has taken on the Etchison children. Their mother Amanda was
involved in a terrible head on collision. Amanda and her fiance were on their
way home from a beach vacation on June 22, 2007. A drunk driver hit their truck
head on and took the life of Amanda's fiance and left Amanda to fight for her
life. Amanda was in the hospital for 8 weeks with 3 of those weeks in ICU. While
in the hospital she underwent 15 surgeries to try to put back together her badly
broken body. Amanda suffered a broke jaw, her teeth were knocked out, a broke
back, her left hip was broken, her left foot had 3rd degree burns, her right
wrist was broken and her right foot was broken as well. She also had injuries to
her bladder, colon and intestines. So far the doctors were able to put teeth
back that were found, save her burned foot by performing skin graphs, she has
pins and plates in her right hand and foot, rods in her back, part of her colon
had to be taken out and her bladder and intestines were repaired.
Amanda was the sole provider for her three beautiful children. Alexis,
Austyn and Adiken are now Team Brendon All Stars! The responsibility for caring
for the children was shared throughout Amanda's entire family. Amanda said,
" This wreck has changed not only my life, but my parents
and grandparents too! I have the best family ever! They all stood by my side
every day, every step of the way and still do today! When I got moved to a
regular room, there wasn't a night that my mom wasn't there laying in the floor
sleeping by my side. There wasn't a day that my grandparents didn't show up for
a visit, just to sit around and talk to me or just to watch me sleep. Every day
that they were there, and every night that my mom was in the floor...I thank God
for my family."
Amanda's mother and father moved Amanda and her three children into their
home so they could take care of Amanda and her children. Amanda's Dad works
seven days a week - straight with no break to support the entire family. Her
mother lost her job because she was denied her family Medical Leave since Amanda
is over the age of 18. Amanda said, " My parents moved me and my children into
their home because I have to have their help. They went from having no one
except them in their home to having 4 extra people. I went from being able to
bend over and pick up my toddler to having him handed to me to hold. I can't
give Adiken a bath or help Alexis wash her hair or just do mommy things that I
should be doing. I can't cook for them right now, I can't help them get dressed
for the simple fact that it still takes my mom's help for me to get
dressed."
Team Brendon has added this family to the All Stars to try to help them
"hang on". With Christmas coming up their situation is only going to get harder.
Donations are being accepted for the Etchison Family on our web site or can be
mailed to Team Brendon.
As always, we appreciate your support!
Holly Tilley Updates can be found at the below link. If you would like to
send a donation to Holly Tilley, please make your check payable to Mary Price
and mail it to :
4812 Country Meadows Drive, Julian, N.C. 27283. Team Brendon will forward
any donations on to her family. Thank you for your support!
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