Miracle Families are the families of Miracle Children. Miracle Children are the several kids chosen from Mercy Children's Hospital in Toledo to be representatives of all of the children that benefit from all the funding generated by Dance Marathon. Below are the Miracle Children for Dance Marathon 2010 and their stories!
Abby JonesAbby is 14 and an 8th grader at Sylvania's Timberstone middle school. She just directed her 8th grade play...Hello Dolly and is looking forward to playing the role of orphan "Molly" in their next 8th grade play "Annie". She also enjoys dancing and has been dancing at Daryl Jervis Dance studio for 10 years now. Her favorite styles of dance are Jazz and Hip-Hop.
Abby was diagnosed at age 11 with Chrohns Disease. Every 8 weeks she goes to St. Vincent's Children Hospital for an infusion which helps keep her disease under control. She is thankful that the Children's Miracle Network provides movies, crafts and games for her to occupy her during her 4 hours of getting her infusion at St. Vincent's Children's Hospital.Bryton Philip Charles
Bryton was born December 26, 2008, six weeks premature at St. Vincent’s Mercy Children’s Hospital in Toledo Ohio. Bryton had feeding problems from the first bottle; he vomited up every formula they tried. He ended up staying in the NICU for eight days before we could take him home. On our first visit Bryton made it clear his vomiting was not your usual baby spit up. He had stopped gaining weight and was very fussy and had difficulty with bowel movements. It was discovered that he was most likely suffering from Celiac’s Disease and Failure to Thrive. He was placed on a Gluten free diet and he did some better right away but still had a lot of trouble with the formulas; he was placed on a milk protein free formula in October and has done much better. Bryton had begun to gain weight and be less fussy; however his diagnosis is still not definite and he has recently lost some weight and lost interest in eating. I believe we are still looking for a definite diagnosis for him. Bryton is smaller than most babies his age but he is happy and typically developing in every other way. Bradley Fetzer
At nine weeks baby Bradley was diagnosed with Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib) disease, commonly known as H Influenzae. The H Influenzae is a serious disease caused by bacteria. The disease is spread person to person. The H Influenzae caused Bradley to develop pneumonia in both lungs. In order for him to fight the pneumonia and the H Influenza, they placed Bradley in a medical induced coma. He was placed on the ventilator for 9 days. Numerous complications occurred while Baby Bradley was in the PICU. It was a joyous day when Bradley was taken off the ventilator and awoke from his medical induced coma. Finally, we were able to hold him again. He continued to improve and Bradley was able to come home at the end of June. Per doctor’s orders, Bradley was house bound until September 1, 2008. Today, Bradley continues to be a patient of Dr. Reddy. He takes medicine daily to aid his breathing and to prevent a possible asthma attack. He is too young to be diagnosed with asthma, but he is being treated as if he has asthma. He uses a breathing machine when needed or when I can corral him long enough to do the breathing treatment. Baby Bradley is now Toddler Bradley at 2 years of age and a very active child. Maddie Cherry
Maddie is a healthy, happy, athletic, intelligent, beautiful sweet girl who is 12 years old. Sports are one of her biggest passions...basketball, softball and especially soccer. The weekend of January 9-10, she played two soccer games and two basketball games in two days! Days later she began having horrible headaches which we thought might be migraines. Day 3 of the headaches, she collapsed at basketball practice when her legs went numb. It was soon determined that Maddie had something called Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
GBS is a temporary disorder that affects the nerves in the body. Basically, Maddie's immune system has attacked her own nervous system to the point that she has no feeling from the waist down. Her cranial nerves have also been attacked so she has numbness and pain in her jaw, lips, head and neck. At the very worst point, the GBS had attacked her lungs to the point that she needed to be on a ventilator for a week. She spent a total of 3 1/2 weeks in the St. V's Pediatric ICU, before she was transferred to Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan for inpatient rehab. Today, she is still in the hospital, trying to regain muscle mass and re-teaching her muscles how to work together and allow her to walk again.
The good news is that kids usually have a full recovery from GBS. The frustrating part is that no one knows how long a full recovery will take. To date, we have been in the hospital for 8 weeks. After she is able to walk unaided, at least some, she will come home and continue with outpatient rehab for a long time. Marissa English
She is a 16 yr old little girl that loves to live her life to the fullest of her abilities. She loves to listen to country music, play with marbles and cards and eat chips & M&M's. :) She is a VERY loving little girl that loves to be around people. She has been through ALOT in her 16 yrs, but yet she is a happy out going little miracle!