Thanks to Bill Lin I was able to set up this thread.
I am married (21 years) and we have 5 children. We have 4 girls: Kim 18, Courtney 16, Morgan 10, Katelyn 9 and Nathan who is 14. Nathan is our wish child. He was bit by a mosquito that was infected with Eastern Equine Enchepalitis (EEE) in August 2007. He went to the first day of school (8th grade) and the next day he was in the hospital. He was transfered from our local hospital to Boston Children's when they had no idea what was wrong. The next morning he had a seizure and was placed in a medically induced coma. The seizure was caused by the brain swelling. We were told a few days later that Nathan had EEE and that there was a 50/50 chance of survival. The doctors were worried that the brain would swell so much that his brain would herniate and the damage would be irreversable. We lived minute by minute for about 1 week wondering if he would live or die. My husband and I took turns, one staying with Nathan and the other going home to be with our 4 daughters. He was in ICU for 3 weeks and then on the neurology floor for 1 week after that. He was then transfered to an inpatient Pedi rehab facility, where he was for about 5 weeks. The virus caused a brain injury. There have only been about 270 cases of EEE in the US and about half of those died. A major portion of the survivors have severe physical and mental disablities. There is no treatment and no cure for EEE. Because EEE is considered a public health threat, we were bombarded by the media. Nathan made the front pages of the papers for about 2 months. The local police had to ride the school bus because the reportes were trying to get interviews with Nathan's friends.
We all call Nathan our "Miricle Boy" . He has very minor physical disabilities. He has a lot of cognitive issues. He has short and long term memory loss, attention and focus issues, he is impulive, has no intuition and knows no boundaries. He is 14ys old, 5'10" and can't be left alone. He is a sweet as pie though. He would give the shirt off is back to anyone that asked. He was discharged finally in November and we were able to all be together again, except for our 18 year old daughter. I forgot to mention that our 18 year old went off to her freshman year at college during all this. She went 1 1/2 wekks late because she insisted that she would not leave her brother just in case something happened. It was a very tough time for all our kids and us. After returning home, Nathan received OT. PT and Speech/Language through a pedi rehab facility 3 times a week. He went back to school in January on a very limited schedule with a one on one tutor. I have had to give up my job as a nurse to be home and take care of him and take Nathan to all of his therapies. This is where MAW comes in.
Last June 07, we went to Disney. We saved and planned and finally went. We stayed at Pop Century and had a blast. It was the first time for our younger girls and older kids remembered very little of our trip in 1997. Unfortunately, with Nathan's memory loss, he remembers very little about the trip. He would ask us questions over and over again about the trip trying to remember it. One of this therapists mentioned MAW so that he could make new memories. We contacted the New Hampshire MAW office and went from there. We were not sure if he would qualify. They has never has a request for a person that has contracted EEE. Nathan qualified and we had our wish granters come to the house to find our more about Nathan and the rest of us. They came with a basket of goodies for ice cream sundies. Joanne and Linda were the sweetest people and really listened to Nathan's wish. We just found our that our wish has been granted and we are going to Disney from August 16-August 23. The flight is all booked and the hotel is booked (Carebbean Beach Resport). Now I am a planner and I am having a hard time letting someone else plan this trip. We are truly gratful for this trip. I searched everywhere on line about found this site. What a wealth of knowledge here. I have been on line for hours reading all of your wonderful stories. I am gathering all kinds fo info. Thanks. I will keep you posted about our pre-trip plans.
Robin
I am married (21 years) and we have 5 children. We have 4 girls: Kim 18, Courtney 16, Morgan 10, Katelyn 9 and Nathan who is 14. Nathan is our wish child. He was bit by a mosquito that was infected with Eastern Equine Enchepalitis (EEE) in August 2007. He went to the first day of school (8th grade) and the next day he was in the hospital. He was transfered from our local hospital to Boston Children's when they had no idea what was wrong. The next morning he had a seizure and was placed in a medically induced coma. The seizure was caused by the brain swelling. We were told a few days later that Nathan had EEE and that there was a 50/50 chance of survival. The doctors were worried that the brain would swell so much that his brain would herniate and the damage would be irreversable. We lived minute by minute for about 1 week wondering if he would live or die. My husband and I took turns, one staying with Nathan and the other going home to be with our 4 daughters. He was in ICU for 3 weeks and then on the neurology floor for 1 week after that. He was then transfered to an inpatient Pedi rehab facility, where he was for about 5 weeks. The virus caused a brain injury. There have only been about 270 cases of EEE in the US and about half of those died. A major portion of the survivors have severe physical and mental disablities. There is no treatment and no cure for EEE. Because EEE is considered a public health threat, we were bombarded by the media. Nathan made the front pages of the papers for about 2 months. The local police had to ride the school bus because the reportes were trying to get interviews with Nathan's friends.
We all call Nathan our "Miricle Boy" . He has very minor physical disabilities. He has a lot of cognitive issues. He has short and long term memory loss, attention and focus issues, he is impulive, has no intuition and knows no boundaries. He is 14ys old, 5'10" and can't be left alone. He is a sweet as pie though. He would give the shirt off is back to anyone that asked. He was discharged finally in November and we were able to all be together again, except for our 18 year old daughter. I forgot to mention that our 18 year old went off to her freshman year at college during all this. She went 1 1/2 wekks late because she insisted that she would not leave her brother just in case something happened. It was a very tough time for all our kids and us. After returning home, Nathan received OT. PT and Speech/Language through a pedi rehab facility 3 times a week. He went back to school in January on a very limited schedule with a one on one tutor. I have had to give up my job as a nurse to be home and take care of him and take Nathan to all of his therapies. This is where MAW comes in.
Last June 07, we went to Disney. We saved and planned and finally went. We stayed at Pop Century and had a blast. It was the first time for our younger girls and older kids remembered very little of our trip in 1997. Unfortunately, with Nathan's memory loss, he remembers very little about the trip. He would ask us questions over and over again about the trip trying to remember it. One of this therapists mentioned MAW so that he could make new memories. We contacted the New Hampshire MAW office and went from there. We were not sure if he would qualify. They has never has a request for a person that has contracted EEE. Nathan qualified and we had our wish granters come to the house to find our more about Nathan and the rest of us. They came with a basket of goodies for ice cream sundies. Joanne and Linda were the sweetest people and really listened to Nathan's wish. We just found our that our wish has been granted and we are going to Disney from August 16-August 23. The flight is all booked and the hotel is booked (Carebbean Beach Resport). Now I am a planner and I am having a hard time letting someone else plan this trip. We are truly gratful for this trip. I searched everywhere on line about found this site. What a wealth of knowledge here. I have been on line for hours reading all of your wonderful stories. I am gathering all kinds fo info. Thanks. I will keep you posted about our pre-trip plans.
Robin
I can't wait to read more!! 
Where did your dd go to school? How was her first year? 
