Meet November’s Legendairy Little, Wade
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2 min
Each month we donate a portion of our proceeds to a child with medical needs through the Legendairy Littles program. During the month of November we will be featuring Wade.
Wade was born in October 2020. Immediately when he was born, his parents knew that something was not right. Wade had an abnormally large bruise on the side of his head, he would bleed through his baby hat without any trauma, and bled for six straight hours following his circumcision. Wade was referred to a hematologist where he had many rounds of testing that took place while he had many visits to the ER for bruising and nosebleeds.
It wasn’t until Wade was 7-months old that he was diagnosed with Glanzmann Thrombasthenia. This is a rare platelet function disorder that causes him to not be able to properly form a clot. Something as simple as a nose bleed could cause Wade to visit the ER for IV treatments. With time, the bleeds have become more severe and have included vomiting blood and having his hemoglobin levels reach levels that require a red blood cell transfusion. Wade has even required emergency surgery to find a bleed and cauterize it in order to stabilize his body. With this instance, Wade was sedated and intubated in the PICU for eight days. After being home for only two weeks, he had to return to the Hematology/Oncology Floor of the hospital for a nosebleed. Wade does have home health options for the more mild bleeds that include a home health nurse placing an IV at his home.
The only option that Wade’s family was given to help with the progressively severe bleeds was to do platelet transfusions. Unfortunately, a body can become immune to these over time. With GT, there is not a clear road map. For Wade, his best chance of survival has come down to a bone marrow transplant. Wade’s team has narrowed his search down to four donors and is waiting on further testing to hopefully select the best match for Wade. The transplant team has planned to admit Wade in October or early November. During this admission, he will need surgery to place a Hickman line before he can begin the bone marrow transplant conditioning (chemo). This surgery is life threatening since it will naturally come with bleeding and platelets will be necessary to avoid excessive bleeding.
Wade loves all things Paw Patrol! He loves his Grandpa “Poppy” and his Grandma. They love to spend as much time as they can playing with Wade. Wade enjoys spending as much time outside as he can. Whether it's finding sticks, picking fruit from trees and veggies from the garden, feeding chickens, playing with dogs, and helping his Daddy mow the lawn, Wade is so happy outdoors. When indoors, Wade loves to build houses out of Linkin Logs and spend hours with his train set. Wade is the proud big brother to his 8-month old sibling. He has picked up on over half of the animals in his “My First 100 Animals” book and loves to be read “Goodnight Moon”.
The Legendairy Littles gift will help Wade’s family with the ongoing expenses of his Bone Marrow Transplant. Please consider visiting BeTheMatch to research becoming a bone marrow donor to save a life just like Wade’s.
If you would like to donate directly to Wade’s family, you can do so here: