Help Cooper Overcome Hirschsprung's and Deafness

Cooper Casey Hathaway was born on October 24, 2024, in Pullman, Washington, to Cody and Joy Hathaway. His parents noticed he struggled to eat right away and was unable to pass any gas or stool. Three days after his birth, he was life-flighted up to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital with a distended abdomen and fear of enterocolitis, where he stayed in the NICU for three weeks. While he was there, he was put on a no-feed diet and was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's Disease, a condition affecting the colon's ganglion cells, removing its ability to move stool through the intestine. The condition would be fatal without treatment.

Alongside his gut issues, he failed multiple hearing screens while he was there as well and was unresponsive to noise, so the doctors feared he was deaf as well. They had an audiologist come in and confirmed that Cooper was also profoundly deaf.

After the diagnosis involving the hearing loss, a geneticist reached out in hopes of providing answers. Maybe the Hirschsprung's Disease and deafness are connected. It turned out that they were. Cooper has a rare mutation of the Sox10 gene called Waardenburg Syndrome Type 4, which answered where both problems came from.

Cooper was discharged in late November as long as his parents performed rectal irrigations twice a day to allow him to release any built-up gas and stool. His surgery was booked for January 30 in Boise, Idaho.

The surgery went well, and they removed five inches of his colon. He is recovering well and gaining weight. He will continue to struggle with constipation, but it is manageable at home thanks to the procedure. Now he is working on getting bigger and stronger so that he can have surgery to get cochlear implants in August to help his hearing!

Cooper’s parents are a young couple just getting started. They both work very hard and would never ask for help; however, friends of the Hathaways have been asking what they can do to help. As you can imagine, the medical bills and time off work have weighed heavily on this young family. Any financial help would be greatly appreciated.