The loss of a child is always one that is utterly heartbreaking, no matter at what age and the relational distance between yourself and the child.
The death of a stranger’s beloved child is still an event that signifies a bright future snuffed out.Even worse, however, is when it is the impending death of your own child that is involved.
Considering just how much work and love goes into raising a child, no wonder their loss is a parent’s greatest fear.
This fear, unfortunately, is one that Ryan and Emilie Matthias from central Iowa had to face at such an early stage in their parenthood.
Alarmed, the Matthias family began the search for an answer, a journey that would require them to wade through multiple different possibilities from various doctors.
In the end, they finally found their answer – Garrett was diagnosed with stage four Alveolar Fusion Negative Rhabdomyosarcoma.
Often simply shortened as rhabdomyosarcoma, it is a rare kind of sarcoma – in other words, a cancer that affects soft tissue, tendons, or bone.
In Garrett’s case, the cancer had attacked the boy’s inner ear and temporal bone.
Over the next 10 months, doctors helped Garrett and his family fight what eventually turned out to be a losing battle.
During his stay in the hospital, he became well-known for being a prankster, making jokes and pulling as many pranks as he could get away with on the doctors and nurses around him.
At the age of five, however, Garrett’s end was undeniably near.
Despite 30 weeks of relentless treatment, Garrett’s illness had only gotten steadily worse, to the point that he was wracked with headaches that were so intense, they stopped him from speaking.
As it turns out, the boy’s cancer had spread from the temporal bone to the lining of his brain, a part of the brain that is responsible for the regulation of the spinal fluid.
Disheartened, the doctors had no choice but to inform his parents about the grave news – his cancer was now untreatable.
In preparation for his inevitable passing, Garrett got the opportunity to travel to Florida, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Alas, by the time the opportunity arose, Garrett was too ill to take advantage of it.
Instead, his family went to meet the gorillas at the Omaha Zoo on a Friday morning. By nightfall, Garrett was no longer able to walk, due to the cancer having spread to his spinal cord.
With his sunny disposition, Garrett wrote what must be one of the most charming obituaries to ever exist for himself.
He then insisted that he didn’t want people to be upset at his funeral.
In line with his request, his funeral will be an occasional celebrating his life, complete with a viking-styled sendoff.
Mother left everyone in disbelief after they heard her excuse why she left her baby alone with pit bull only for the dog to chew on the child’s hands and leave her without 5 fingers!
The young mother, later identified as Chloe, was arrested and charged with neglect after leaving her baby daughter with pit bull. The dog reportedly chewed on the baby’s hand when she left her alone, resulting in the girl losing 5 fingers.
Three of the fingers on the girl’s left hand were fully amputated and two fingers on her right hand were partially amputated. The incident left neighbors startled and in disbelief.
The mother reportedly left her 3-month-old baby alone with the dog so she could take a shower. During and interview with investigators, the 21-year-old mom said that she was feeling ill and put the little girl in her bassinet before heading to the bathroom, per reports.
The woman then turned on the shower and turned it back off again when she heard the baby girl scream. Chloe then found the 3-month-old pit bull puppy chewing on the baby’s hands. She wrapped the baby’s hands in cloth and called 911…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
You just don’t. Thank God the baby’s still alive,’ neighbor, Kecia said. NBC2 reports the three-month-old puppy that was just brought into the home less than 24 hours earlier after the mother coming across a post for the dog on Facebook.
The mother was charged with child neglect following a four-month-long investigation. Investigators in bringing charges forward said the mother kept changing stories as to why she left the baby alone with the pit bull.
The puppy was quarantined as part of protocol following a bite. The pit bull passed the quarantine and was transferred to the Animal Welfare League.
As the baby recovers with family members, the mother, who posted $7,500 bond, was granted supervised visitation. This incident remains under investigation.
The resulting diagnosis was shocking and horrifying: acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM.
This extremely rare condition causes brain swelling, and Ellis now has repeated seizures as a result.
ADEM is a little-understood disease that can begin from even a small infection.
It causes negative reactions to the white matter of the brain, which then affects the body’s immune system.
The result is a severe allergic reaction that involves attacking the immune system and the eroding of nerves’ protective layers.
This condition tends to affect different people in different ways, meaning it is usually impossible for doctors to provide an accurate prognosis – as is the case with Ellis.
It is unsure whether Ellis will recover, how severe his condition is, or if he will have any long-term effects from it.
After the AEDM diagnosis, Ellis was placed in a medically-induced coma and rushed to the Leeds General Infirmary.
A week later, another scan revealed that the swelling was no longer just in Ellis’ brain – it was beginning to make its way down his spine.
He was also having mini-seizures due to the brain swelling. But it’s not all bad news – after a while of being on a ventilator, Ellis is able to breathe on his own again.
The Sick Children’s Trust has put up Ellis’ family, including his three brothers, the youngest of which still doesn’t know what is really happening to Ellis.
Ellis, meanwhile, is still in a coma with his parents by his bedside as he receives the 24/7 care that he needs.
It is still unknown whether Ellis will recover fully or not, but doctors are doing everything they can to provide information to his worried family.
It’s expected that Ellis will be at the hospital for at least a couple of months, and will then need constant care at home once he is able to leave.
In order to ease the financial strain, family and friends, as well as Ellis’ school Clayton St John CE Primary School, have been working hard to raise funds for the family.
Ellis is a strong, tough boy and everyone is rooting for him and hoping for his recovery.
A fundraiser for the family with a £5,000 target goal has been set up, and around 92% of funds have been raised at the time of writing.
If you’d like to donate to the cause, you can do so at their JustGiving page.
Losing a child can be a devastating event, no matter what age.It is, however, universally agreed upon that it is worse when the child is lost at such a young age.
Sadly, this sort of early death is expected for some families, due to the circumstances that their child is involved in.
Despite the advancement of modern medicine, there are still plenty of children who suffer from severe health problems from either a young age or even from birth. These children are often predicted to not survive very long.
This latest bout of illness seemed to be the last one she could handle – the girl was forced to stay in the hospital for seven weeks, completely dependant on life support.
It was at this point that Colleen Banton, her mother, was forced to make a heartbreaking decision.
In the interest of not prolonging her daughter’s suffering, she opted to keep the ventilator off the next time her daughter was strong enough to breathe on her own.
It was essentially plugging the plug for the girl – by this point, Colleen had decided that should her daughter’s time had come, then there was no use in delaying the inevitable.
While praying with friends and family who had come out to support this mother, Colleen was suddenly called over to a nearby monitor by the pediatrician nurse.
There, her attention was directed to the bright light that had appeared in front of the door to the pediatrician unit.
Astonished, Colleen took a quick photo of it with her camera, then went to check this strange light in person.
Oddly enough, it wasn’t there physically.
A miracle occurred shortly thereafter – three days later, Chelsea was well enough to return home once again.
Colleen is convinced that the figure was an angel who helped her daughter.
Chelsea would then go on to live for another 7 more years before passing away in 2015, at the age of 21.