Help Jackson get a therapy dog

I met Jackson while coaching the UCLA Dance Team in 2019. He and his mom made a huge impact on my life and I’m hoping to help them in a time of need. Jackson is a kind, fun loving, determined little boy with his whole life ahead of him. I’m asking for donations to help Jackson get the therapy dog he needs so he can move forward with his life.

Jackson Verner has spent much of his young life as a hospital inpatient. After Jackson suffered a series of strokes in 2017 that paralyzed the entire left side of his body, doctors told Sara Verner that her son would need at least six months of in-hospital rehabilitation and might never regain his full gait, if he could walk at all.

Jackson Verner was born as a preemie at 28 weeks and 4 days. At five-and-a-half months he had heart surgery, and for nearly three years after that he endured nightmarish symptoms, with episodes that included screaming, vomiting, not eating for days and then sleeping for 40 hours straight. He experienced cluster headaches involving the trigeminal nerve — known as suicide headaches for the excruciating pain they cause, with no meds able to provide relief. Desperate for answers, Sara Verner took Jackson from one medical facility to another. She was told her son would be fine — he likely had a virus, or was merely constipated. But she knew it had to be more.

At her wit’s end, Verner made the nearly 100-mile trek from her home community of Murrieta, in southwestern Riverside County, to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, where Jackson was admitted in May 2017. There, it didn’t take long for doctors to discover that Jackson had a brain tumor, and that the ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt ­that had been placed after his heart surgery more than two years earlier had malfunctioned and was contributing to the symptoms. Jackson underwent surgery to remove the VP shunt — a medical device designed to relieve pressure on the brain caused by fluid accumulation.

Jackson has since been in intensive rehabilitation for the last 4 years. Unfortunately at the start of covid-19 pandemic jackson began experiencing severe joint pain in his left side. And has continued to have severe loss of use of his left side despite all interventions. In may 2021 jackson was then sent to immunology where he was diagnosed the severe pediatric rheumatoid arthritis. Jacksons ability to function in life has decreased significantly with the erosion of his already affected joints, and severe vision impairment.. His current treatment has now required to be home with many scary doctors appointments and upcoming eye surgery. That could potentially worsen what remaining vision he has. Jackson Needs for assistance has increased exponentially in all areas of life. And with a single mom providing all those services. Jackson would benefit greatly with a service dog and help from the community for all the cost associated with the increase of care required.

Please share this so we can get Jackson the help he needs.

Thanks,

Tiphanie