Ethan Medical Recovery

Hello, this is Ethan’s adoptive parents. A little backstory our son Ethan is a victim of severe child abuse by his biological mother and her boyfriend. Our son's name is Ethan and he was adopted, at nine years of age on August 18, 2014 by our family. We had him in foster care as well.

Our adopted son was found when he was 18 months old. He was a typical infant. He had been shaken so hard by his mother’s boyfriend and her that he had bleeding in the brain. From that day forward he had his first brain surgery and suffered a massive injury to his brain. He could not speak, walk, talk, was blind, and paralyzed on one side of his body. A few years later he had three other brain surgeries and in one they had to remove the entire right side of the brain. He then was diagnosed with Epilepsy , Cerebral Palsy and legally blind. He is cognitively impaired and now at 19 years old he is unable to speak and is like a three year old. He is completely paralyzed on one side of his body.

He was soon returned to the mother and the mother blamed the “accident” on his then three year old brother. The mother was ordered to stay away from the boyfriend but she did not. Our son’s story did not end there. He then was rushed to the hospital because he had eaten a pack of cigarettes and cough drops. This was not reported to any caseworkers and he was returned home to his mother.

Social workers reported that this is when the mother began to zip tie Ethan down so that he would not do these sort of things again. When he was five years old he was found by another boyfriend crying in a basement area. He was zip tied to a crib and unfed for 100 days. The social workers reported this and told the mother to clean things up and then they would return in a week. He was eating his diapers and feces. He was put into foster care with his brother into our home. He was diagnosed a few days later with anorexia.

He never fully recovered but he was able to learn to walk with braces, to use sign language, to potty train and to attend school despite functioning like a 3 to 4 year old. He was quite ambulatory and could hum any song in the world.

In July 2023 he began showing signs of fatigue, nausea and unable to hold his head up. On July 22, 2023 he was admitted to the hospital. They found that because of his shaken baby traumatic brain injury and the removal of the right lobe of the brain cerebral fluid is not draining causing hydrocephalus and a fluid filled cyst on his brain stem. While preparing for brain surgery he went into respiratory distress and stop breathing. He was put on life support on July 25 and stayed in ICU until August 14, 2023.

He has returned home and has not yet had brain surgery. His condition has deteriorated. He has had vomiting and can only eat small spoons of liquid. He can not walk, make sounds to speak, barely sit up and is like a baby. He is in diapers and unable to play or function like he used to before this. He is total lift and requires significant 24 hour care. All of this is a direct result of his severe abuse by his mother. All these years later he is still suffering. His adoption medical insurance pays for very little. They do not pay for rehab or any resources to help with moving him. We are both educators and one of us has to stay home at all times from our school jobs.

We need financial help to pay for resources such as nursing to help with bathing, moving, care and medical bills. We also both had jobs and are trying to go from two incomes to one. All while trying to pay for Ethan’s medical care and care and provide financially for our other children.

He has returned to the hospital again for more medical care and will have other trips. The doctors are unsure how to help his brain as it is so injured. We do not know what to do to help him and are at a great loss.

Please pray for our family and please help us pay medical bills and for resources to care for him. He is amazing and deserves to go back to where he was. Thank all you so much !