Please help get Austin vital health equipment - A Cough Assist Machine for a DMD sufferer

Austin Taylor is a 19-year-old young man who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Due to the DMD, Austin suffers from Asthma symptoms where his lungs have never been working to full strength.

In November last year, Austin suffered a Twisted Bowel emergency which resulted in two serious respiratory failures, Liver failure, and a cardiac arrest. Austin has overcome all odds and survived.

One of the medical outcomes Austin has developed is the inability to remove secretion when coughing. To go to school and basically get through the day, Austin requires a Cough Assist Machine. We are currently using a borrowed machine from the Muscular Dystrophy Association which is a short-term solution.

A cough assist machine is $10,000. We have and are continuing to lobby the Health Board, but this is not an item that they provide. Without this machine, Austin is confined to his bed. He coughs on average three times a day and more when it is cold. We have installed a heat pump in his bedroom that he shares with his older brother who also has DMD and this has exhausted funds towards this machine.