Jonathan Goff Memorial Fund
Jonathan Matthew Goff, born on March 21, 1993 to Erica Lynne and Kevin Michael Goff, at Washington Hospital Center, Washington DC, passed away at the same hospital he was born on August 16, 2016.
Jonathan developed and was diagnosed with early symptoms of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) at the age of 5, and continued treatment for episodic seasonal JRA flares into his late teens. He spent many combined months in the hospital during his worst times as a teenager.
Jonathan lived in Chesapeake Beach, MD with his mother Erica Sivils and step-father Bryan Sivils. Despite his medical setbacks through the years, he was still able to attend school going to Windy Hill Middle School and had started a mild remission of his JRA symptoms before graduating from Northern High School in Calvert Co, MD on June 10, 2012.
Outside of school, Jonathan's favorite activities included video games, managing and coding game websites, watching movies, diving, and loved his favorite cat Junipur. He also played an important part acting as half-brother to Tyler Sivils since his birth in 2006.
In the years after he graduated though, his health steadily declined, his JRA symptoms returned, and his mobility became increasingly difficult.
After years of fighting immune disease, he started to develop other ailments as a result of underlying JRA issues including a progressive rare bone marrow disease (HLH), medication, transfusion, and dialysis side effects from kidney failure, and ultimately heart failure. He passed with his mother Erica at his side and was given last rites by a Catholic priest.
Jonathan, understanding his rare disease and in the event of his passing, had left instructions for his remains to be donated to science to further education and treatments for others that might be found. Uniform Services University & Health Sciences will be the benefactors of his selfless donation, and the same doctors that treated him in his early years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and NIH will be following this donation.
Jonathan lived his life as best he could, despite the adversity of his conditions and developed into a young man that departed this Earth too shortly.
He will be missed greatly.