Please let me take a few minutes of your day and allow me to ask for your help.
My son Harlen was born on January 12th, 2009 after a full term pregnancy with no complications. Shortly after his birth it was discovered that his blood glucose level was dropping rapidly. As doctors were trying to figure out what was wrong, he suddenly had a stroke causing major damage to the occipital lobes of his brain. Harlen was quickly airlifted to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, where he was admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia (a disease where the optic nerves in the eye are underdeveloped causing the child to be blind in most cases), adrenal gland insufficiency, hypothyroidism, and diabetes insipidus. It’s very overwhelming to hear that your child has so many medical problems and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
The eye doctor I’ve been taking Harlen to has told us that there are no treatment options for his eye condition. For a while I had given up hope and just turned to raising a blind child the best I could. However, in recent months I started researching any possibilities to help Harlen’s eye condition. I was excited to find that scientists in China are using umbilical cord stem cells for treatments of several disorders including optic nerve hypoplasia and strokes. This treatment shows a lot of promise and I have talked to several families who have had successful results and seen significant improvements in their child’s vision. In my mind, there is nothing controversial about this treatment; umbilical cords are usually just treated as medical waste and discarded. And those cells could potentially help someone like Harlen! I just know that if successful, this treatment could improve Harlen’s quality of life so much! Unfortunately this treatment is not covered by medical insurance and our family just doesn’t have the financial means to support a treatment like this. This is where I am asking for your help. My family needs to raise around $40,000 for the 6 stem cell treatments, and our travel and lodging expenses.
In order to help fund the cost of this treatment, a fundraising campaign has been established in Harlen’s honor with HelpHOPELive. HelpHOPELive is a non-profit organization that has been assisting the transplant community with fundraising for over 25 years. Won’t you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to this campaign today?For more information, please contact HelpHOPELive at 800-642-8399.

Thanks for your support!