Help for John

ABOUT JOHN:

John has severe haemophilia A, which is a life long blood disorder. In a nutshell, this means that his blood is missing a certain part that helps form a clot.

John is given medication that can only be given through a vein. At this point in time he has a port, which is a device inserted beneath the skin, and connected to a vein going in to his heart. Due to the frequency of treatment (4 times a week) the port is accessed a lot, and eventually they perish.

John's Mum and Dad (Caroline and Andrew) treat him from home, via the port as there is no haemophilia centre in Whangarei. When the port fails, they will use his veins to give him the medicine he needs to help prevent and treat bleeding internally.

His parents are trained in doing this as their older son Austin also has haemophilia. As you can imagine, finding veins on a child is no easy feat, and although they do an amazing job, it is heartbreaking when a vein is missed, and they have to keep sticking until they find a vein.

John cannot skip a day of treatment, if they are having a 'bad day' as he developed inhibitors which means his body built up an immunity to the medicine and rejects it. Not administering the medication would leave him very vulnerable to internal bleeding that has severe and devastating consequences.

The only way they can fight this is to give treatment this frequently. He will be on treatment this regularly for the rest of his life, which, with proper treatment will be as long as you or I - God willing!

WHAT YOU ARE HELPING FUND RAISE FOR:

An amazing machine called Accuvein. This machine will help Caroline and Andrew to see where John's vein is, meaning far less chance of missing a vein! The device would also be a wonderful tool in helping John find veins once he is old enough, making the journey of independence and self care easier to accomplish. His older brother, Austin, would also benefit from having use of this machine as, even though he is very adept at accessing himself (an AMAZING feat for a 9yr old!), he occasionally misses. This would obviously be GREAT for all concerned!

You can read up about it on their website here:

http://www.accuvein.com/

This machine is quite expensive (approx $7500) and well out of the grasp of this family. We would LOVE to be able - with YOUR help - to get this for them. It really would make a world of difference to their daily life!

ANY DONATION is greatly appreciated and every dollar gets us one step closer to that machine for this amazing family!!

UPDATE .. Just thought I should mention that anything over the cost of the machine (which at first I was advised was around $7000, recently we have been advised it is $7,500) will go to the family to help cover other costs associated with John having Haemophilia such as petrol costs for trips to Starship etc.

Video of John getting factor here:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10151964955343593&set=vb.608743592&type=3&theater

Video of Austin doing factor on himself at 7yr here!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10151770179253593&set=vb.608743592&type=3&theater

Video of John getting factor again:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10151699962113593&set=vb.608743592&type=3&theater