Help purchase a wheelchair accessible van for Ian

 

Last September, Ian was hospitalized with a rare autoimmune disease affecting his spinal cord and brain. One day he was playing for his school's water polo team, the next day he was in the ICU. Within hours, he was not able to move himself, speak, or breathe on his own.

 

For the next 70 days, Ian fought to regain use of this head, shoulders, speech, cognitive ability, hands and arms. When he realized he'd missed the first quarter of his senior year at Gonzaga High School, he stated his goal was not to fall behind his classmates! His parents scrambled to reengage teachers and get college applications going.

 

In late November, Ian moved to an acute rehabilitation hospital in Norfolk, Va. Ian has made progress beginning to breathe on his own and hopes to no longer depend on the ventilator to breathe. He has become medically stable and gained strength in his upper body and torso. Recently, a repeat MRI reinforced that it will be difficult for him to regain function in his legs and additional treatment and therapy will be a long road.

 

His family's goal is to stay the active, sports loving, college-bound family they were in September...as normal as possible. With Ian in a wheelchair, his family's current cars are not cutting it. Wheelchair vans are modified by hand and extremely expensive. They are customized to individual chair and safety spec's and environmental conditions. They are already sure that we will buy used and recycle one of these amazing vehicles!

 

His family is hoping to bring Ian home to the DC area in March of 2022. He is set on graduating with his classmates and already has acceptances from JMU and VCU (which they will need to check out from their new perspective).

 

Thank you in advance for being a blessing to his family - it is with many hands at their back that they will be successful in making Ian's way forward as mainstream and "normal" as possible. All funds will be withdrawn by his mother, Letitia Tucker, to be used for this wheelchair accessible van.