Help Zachary Make a Recovery

Hello everyone this is Zachary. He is a 4 year old boy battling a very rare disease called Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) and he and his family are in need of your help for recovery.

Before his illness, Zachary was an energetic boy who loved to participate in a variety of sports. Zachary was always running, climbing, dancing and singing until this dreadful disease stripped that away from him.

On Labor Day weekend of 2024, a couple of days shy of starting Junior Kindergarten, Zachary developed a fever and neck pain. His parents took him to a Walk-In Clinic where the doctors dismissed his symptoms as a virus that needs to simply run its course. The next day, Zachary was still feeling unwell and began to vomit. Parents brought him to Emergency. While waiting, Zachary requested some water. His mom gave him his water bottle however, Zachary was not able to grasp and hold on to it. Unbeknownst to them, this was the beginning of Zachary's frightful and painful road to the discovery of him having AFM.

Zachary was immediately transferred to The Hospital for Sick Kids. While waiting for additional tests, Zachary’s physical health began to deteriorate before his parents' eyes. He quickly lost the ability to move his limbs, his neck, his torso and eventually lost the ability to breathe and swallow on his own. He developed high fevers as his body was being attacked with multiple infections. At this point, he was intubated, heavily sedated and transferred to NICU.

The days turned into weeks, and after various tests and assessments, the team of Doctors at Sick Kids gave the family a firm diagnosis: Acute Flaccid Myelitis, stemming from Enterovirus D 68.

The family was forced to make a life-altering decision: pull the breathing and feeding tubes from Zachary and have nature take its course or have a Tracheotomy and a Gestational Tube inserted in Zachary's body to assist him with long-term breathing and eating.

His parents immediately decided that they were going to fight for their son to live and recover. The Trach and G-Tube were inserted. Once stable, Zachary was transferred to Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. This is where Zachary currently resides with his family by his side. His days are filled with intensive physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. He still requires a Trach and G-tube to support life. Recovery has been and will continue to be a slow and long process.

Zachary was given a release date from Holland Bloorview on April 3rd. To increase the chances of recovery, Zachary will require daily, intensive physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy. He will require one-on-one, 24 hour “eyes on” care by a healthcare care professional. Structural changes to the family home will be necessary to accommodate all the medical equipment required to keep Zachary breathing, eating and surviving. All these changes and services will be very costly for the family. The government does not cover the majority of life-sustaining equipment and therapies necessary for Zachary.

This is where we ask for your prayers, compassion and financial support.