Christian's Climb to Conquest

This is Christian.

The above photos show him as a regular 9-year-old boy enjoying life, and an 11-year-old boy who has suffered a rare illness he continues to battle.

Christian went from being full of life to fighting for his life- practically overnight.

At the beach in June 2020, Christian romped in the water, played with his brother, laughed, and thoroughly enjoyed living!

Sadly, it was on this vacation where he contracted a rare bacterial infection in his ear.

This particular bacteria, Pseudomonas, is resistant to every antibiotic that was tried. The infection was making its way up to his brain. The future seemed bleak. Doctors performed a mastoidectomy. It was the beginning of a long road to recovery.

During his second month in the hospital, undergoing all types of treatment, Christian developed DRESS Syndrome, a rare, life-threatening disease. DRESS stands for Drug Rash with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms. Most patients will recover from DRESS Syndrome in around 9 weeks. Unfortunately, Christian has been struggling with DRESS for two years. As a result, he is on high levels of steroids, among other drugs. Unfortunately, one of the drugs is an immune suppressant making him extremely vulnerable to even a cold virus, not to mention the threat of COVID. Because of this, his family has lived in relative quarantine since June 2020.

Christian’s body is fighting hard, but he is struggling.

Christian has several migraines with confusion weekly, POTS, Adrenal Insufficiency, Tachycardia, Osteoporosis, Atelectasis, Narcolepsy, Cataplexy, bladder issues, Toxic Muscle Disease, Ocular hypertension, Growth Hormone Deficiency, and frequently falls.

Most recently, he has been relegated to a power wheelchair with tilt, specially made to form to his body. Obviously, all of this means enormous adjustments in his life.

His mother, Hannah, is doing all she can to provide around-the-clock care for Christian without neglecting the care of Christian’s older brother. The three of them live in Mechanicsville, surrounded by loved ones who care for them immensely. Yet the task of caring for Christian has become too great for us to do alone.

We are reaching out to our community to ask for YOUR help.

How can you help? There are so many ways.

Anything raised above and beyond our immediate goal will be used to help offset the family’s living expenses.

Please prayerfully consider how you can pitch in and support this small family. A caring community wrapping its arms around this family can be a strength in difficult times. Thanks for caring!

(Hannah's mother, Ellen Nash, has volunteered to administer the finances raised by this and other fundraisers since Hannah's time is spent between hospital visits and doctors appointments leaving her little time for any other responsabilities. This will explain why Ellen's name is listed as the beneficiary on this account.)