Jacks Fight For A Cure

Jack was born on November 4th 2008 a healthy beautiful baby boy weighing a mere 5lbs.12oz.

At 12 weeks of age our life was turned upside down when we took him to Emerg and were told that our son was very very sick that they were going to do everything they could to save him but they didn't know if they were going to be able to.

Jack was given an emergency blood transfusion through an IV in his head. We were told that his red blood cell count was so low that when they drew blood it looked like pink lemonade. We were also told that as a result that every organ in his body was starving for oxygen.

After being stabilized we were transferred to sick kids hospital in Toronto where Jack underwent a battery of tests including xrays, ultrasounds, multiple blood transfusions, and MRI, and finally a bone marrow biopsy to rule out Leukemia.

Seven days later we were discharged from the hospital on the premise that Jack had contracted a virus which had temporarily shut down his bone marrow.

As the weeks passed and Jack's condition continued to worsen we found ourselves back at the hospital for yet a third blood transfusion.

This pattern continued on for approximately 8 weeks when the doctors decided that this was no longer just a virus and Jack was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow failure condition known as Diamond Blackfan Anemia. An extremely rare blood disorder affecting less than 1000 people in the world.

Jack is a beautiful, happy, and energetic 2 and half year old doing all the things that most two year olds do except Jack's body is unable to make red blood cells and every three weeks he needs a life sustaining packed red blood cell transfusion. To date he has had in excess of 35 transfusions and during the course of his life he will likely have over 1000. As a result of this his body is overloaded with iron and he must be hooked up to a pump every night to help rid his body of the iron.

Jack has recently done a MRI on his liver to see if there is any damage. The results are still pending.

Thankfully Jack looks perfectly healthy but he really needs our help to find a cure for this medical condition so that he can live a better life. Please help us find a cure. Donate to Jack's cause www.jacksfightforacure.com or direct to the foundation DBA Canada www.dbacanada.com All donations go to DBA Canada for research!!!!