Hope for Morgan
Thanks
for taking the time to visit Morgan's JustGiving page.
Morgan is 11 years old and
attends Wheatfield Primary School in Bradley Stoke. He is an extremely fun
loving, determined and popular little boy despite the fact he has a
severe disability to deal with. His determination to succeed in
life and everything he does is testament to him and his will to be just like
his peers. He attends a mainstream school and up until recently was playing
football for one of his local teams, which you will find even more amazing
after reading his story below.
Morgan
was born 8 weeks premature on the 9th January, weighing just 3lb
10oz, by emergency caesarean. Morgan was in a serious condition at birth and was not breathing. He was rushed to the neo-natal intensive care
unit, where he was put on a machine to help him breath.
Morgan’s time in NICU was very traumatic,
he suffered an arrest which took a team of doctors and nurses 20 minutes to
resuscitate him. After 4 weeks Morgan was finally discharged home, but had to return
to hospital 4 weeks later (on his due date) for an MRI brain scan.
The
day we returned for his scan was the day our world fell apart. After the scan,
we were advised of the catastrophic effects to the brain the starvation of oxygen had. We were informed that Morgan had suffered a middle cerebral artery
stroke (MCA). We were advised that he had cerebral palsy and it was unlikely he would ever walk
or talk.
This
is a picture of his brain scan and I think you will agree that you don’t need
to be a neurologist to see the damage (The bright areas are the damaged areas
of the brain).
Our
little fighter proved everyone wrong and walked at 17 months and can talk, he
even attends a mainstream school, although he requires the support of a full
time one to one support.
Unfortunately
for Morgan he has suffered and experienced events and conditions that no one
could have predicted. At the age of three and a half he stopped breathing again
and after over a month in hospital and numerous tests he was diagnosed with
centralised sleep apnoea and cardiac arrhythmias, which means he stops breathing whilst sleeping and has a fluctuating heart rhythm which can make him feel very unwell. He
has to have an oxygen heart monitor, with oxygen by nasal cannula whilst
sleeping. To add to Morgan’s list, he suffers severe reflux where he is often sick
and struggles to gain weight, and is also in constant pain.
Morgan
has to take 12 different medications every day; he suffers daily with the
emotional effects of his disability. In Morgan’s little
life he has endured 19 operations/procedures and at the age of three and a half
when he experienced his longest stay in hospital he was referred to the Jessie
May Trust, the Lifetime service and to the Children’s Hospice South West (where
we enjoy lots of stays) as the doctors felt his condition was life
threatening/limiting and it would be unlikely he would reach adulthood.
There
is no cure for Morgan, but there is hope and like any parent we would do
anything for our child, so our aim is to give him the best possible chance
in life. Our goal is to raise £70,000 to enable us to take Morgan to America to
undergo surgery called Selective Dorsal Rhyzotimy. This operation involves
operating on the spinal cord, permanently removing all the bad, unhelpful
messages that are sent around the body which comes from the damaged part of the brain. This operation will change Morgan’s quality of life.
The
funds raised will go towards the operations, acquiring the equipment that will
help Morgan with his rehabilitation and his intensive physiotherapy to ensure
he gets the best results. Should we exceed the target amount (or if we do not
raise enough funds, or if they cannot be used for any other reason) the funds raised will go the general funds of Tree of Hope to
assist other sick children.
Thank you for reading Morgan’s story, for your interest
and hopefully for your support.
Zoe, Darren, Anais, Morgan and Emmie x You can also make text donations. Text 70070 using code HFMW99 and £amount, every penny helps. Thank you.
He now needs another major operation that can only be performed in America
and we need to raise funds of around £70,000 to make this possible. This
operation will significantly improve his quality of life and this is the only option he has left to lead a reasonably normal, pain
free life. Please take time to read his story.