In Honor and Memory of LeRoy

On March 23, 1993, God blessed my family with LeRoy. At the age of 3, he was hospitalized for medical problems. At the end of the hospital stay, he was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis and an enlarged liver. We learned that this meant his lungs would not function properly without proper treatment, eventually shortening his life and possibly not living past the early teen years. After that, we had to learn how to properly care for him medically. Every three months, he had to go in for doctor's visits. Luckily, he was able to stay out of the hospital until 2003 at the age of 10 for what CF'ers (Cystic Fibrosis patients) call a "tune up", meaning they stay in the hospital for about 2 to 3 weeks with plenty of IV antibiotics and multiple breathing treatments a day. Due to his growth spurt, he was considered to be underweight and malnourished, so he needed a Gastric Button that would connect to his inner stomach. This was used to feed him liquid nourishments in hopes that he could become healthy enough for a liver transplant. As he got older, the hospital stays became more frequent. In September of 2004, he had a liver transplant. During the surgery, he went into cardiac arrest once and was revived. In April of 2005, due to the liver transplant, he had a Heart Oblation, which is a procedure done to treat irregular heartbeats. Once again, he went into cardiac arrest and was brought back. After this procedure, he went back to the hospital twice a year for his "tune ups". Right after his high school graduation, in June 2011, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread through his back, stomach and kidney. Because of this, he was unable to take his senior portraits. His chemotherapy was scheduled to be once a month. However, due to complications with his CF and chemotherapy, he was in the hospital for 3-4 weeks at a time, only able to return home a few days between treatments, if at all. Four months later in October, his right lung collapsed. Two months later, he had a lymph node dissection to remove the cancer that had spread to his back, stomach and kidney. In January of 2012, he was cancer free. That same month, he was able to start applying for a double lung and kidney transplant. He was then transferred over to Houston Methodist Medical Center from Texas Children's Hospital. While he was getting evaluated for the transplant, they discovered that his plasma antibodies were too high to receive a transplant without risking transplant rejection. In an attempt to lower his antibodies, he went through something called Plasmapheresis for three months. Unfortunately, this therapy was unsuccessful, so he was no longer a candidate for the transplant. Right after attempting to lower his antibodies for his transplant, he needed dialysis (a procedure to filter his blood and remove toxins from his body) because he was in the beginning stages of renal failure. Due to multiple infections from his collapsed lung, doctors told him that in order to prolong his life, he would have to remove his lung. At the time, there had never been a patient with Cystic Fibrosis living with one lung. LeRoy decided to undergo the procedure knowing that there was a possibility that he would not survive. In June 2012, he underwent the procedure. Three days later, he went into cardiac arrest again three times. Due to the long downtime, he was put into sedation and on cold therapy for 72 hours in attempt to protect his organs, spinal column and brain from further swelling and damage. After the 72 hours, he woke up with absolutely no brain damage or any other complications. However, he was still on the ventilator. As they tried to remove him from the ventilator, he couldn't tolerate it. Doctors then decided to give him a tracheostomy, a tube in his throat to help him breathe. Months later in November, he was finally discharged to go home on the ventilator. He was able to stay home without complications or any other hospital stays until January 2015. In January, he returned due to an infection in his dialysis catheter, which he had removed and replaced. In early March, he was admitted for a Cystic Fibrosis "tune up" and on the 5th, he went into cardiac arrest, but was not ready to quit fighting. He woke up 8 hours later asking for a cheeseburger he had asked for before he arrested. After he recovered, we went home. For a few months, we were in and out of the hospital because of he was unable to complete dialysis at home. September 29, 2015, we called 911 because he was losing large amounts of blood through his tracheostomy. Upon arrival to the hospital, he went into emergency exploratory surgery and tracheostomy removal and remained sedated. The next day, he went in for his second emergency surgery to ensure the bleeding had stopped and they replaced his tracheostomy. The surgeon at the time had downsized his tracheostomy, so upon waking up from sedation, he had difficulty breathing. Days later, doctors realized that they would have to go back to his original sized tracheostomy, so it was replaced. He was still having difficulty breathing. A week later, it was discovered that he had Deep Vein Thrombosis, which are blood clots. Doctors decided to begin a blood thinning therapy. Days later, he began bleeding from his trachea again. Due to these complications, doctors said there was no more they could do. LeRoy decided that he was going to fight until his very last breath. However, he no longer wanted to feel any more pain. In order to make him more comfortable, they began to give him pain medicine. Once his body was no longer able to tolerate dialysis, pain medications and toxins built up in his body until eventually, his heart stopped beating for the last time at 3:04 AM on October 22, 2015. As normal and human as he might've seemed to those who didn't know his situation well, he was an example of courage and Super-Human strength to those who knew the details of his everyday battle. It was really important to LeRoy to share his story because he wanted nothing more than to inspire others to never give up and to keep fighting and to not take life for granted. Throughout our lives, we've always had a passion for cars. Through this passion, he's met many different people and has shared his story with them inspiring them to never give up, do the right thing and follow their dreams. He changed the lives and touched the hearts of many. The reason we started this page is because his friends felt the need to help him because LeRoy did so much to help them.  Anything would be very much appreciated to help with funeral costs. Thank you for reading his story and giving us a chance to let his story live on and continue to inspire those who come across it.