Why we Started
Below is a story of a 1 year old boy. A boy that just so happens to be the child of a man that changed his best friends life with his generosity and love. A man that deserves the right to have the opportunity to share that love and generosity with his son.
We started to give back. We started to care. Caring Cures.
Please read the story below by Rosemary Revell to see and learn why it is we started the HUS Foundation. Thank You as we here at the HUS Foundation feel all deserve to live a life free of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome.
 Little Brody fights a giant disease
By Rosemary Revell | Democrat staff writer | April 23, 2009 11:13
BRODY SWARBRICK, 1 year old, of El Dorado is one of only 300 people in the United States who suffers from Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). The disease is so rare that not much is known about it. At the moment, Body is receiving plasma transfusions twice a week in Roseville. Friends of the family have started a fund to help with expenses. Brody's parents, Jared and Amy Swarbrick, are both graduates of Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs. Democrat photos by Pat Dollins
Jared and Amy Swarbrick of El Dorado are facing a devastating and long-term crisis. Their 1-year old son Brody has been diagnosed with Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a blood plasma disease that adversely affects the kidneys. If the search for a genetic link turns out to be positive, the Swarbrick’s 3-year old daughter Cadance could be at risk as well.
Brody’s troubles began a week before the family left for Oregon on vacation. He came down with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a respiratory virus that in its mildest form acts like a cold and that in more severe cases goes into pneumonia. Brody threw the virus, but it may have triggered the onset of HUS.
Brody had not been in Oregon long when he started throwing up. The Swarbricks took their son to a small-town hospital in Coquille, Ore., where they were shunted to a hospital in Coos Bay, Ore.
“We went to three hospitals in one day until we ended up at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. Brody got a blood plasma transfusion. He was chalk white,” Amy said.
The family spent the next five weeks in Portland while Brody was in the hospital getting two blood plasma transfusions a day. Plasma transfusions last several hours and are hard on a young child.
“Brody is the best kid. He always smiles, even when being poked and prodded,” Amy said.
Brody is still in stage 1 of the disease. Currently, he goes to Roseville three days a week for the transfusions. The tubes are taped permanently to his chest, bumps beneath his T-shirt. Brody’s treatment was complicated by a severe infection at the previous site of one of the tubes. His treatment involved taking three different antibiotics.
 Brody’s doctors will not consider him in remission until he no longer needs transfusions. Once remission occurs, however, any virus can trigger a reoccurrence of HUS, and each reoccurrence is worse than the one before, Amy explained.
“Someone told me that the average time between reoccurrence and hospital stays was two months for her child. But what can you do? You can’t keep your child in a bubble,” Amy said.
While in Portland, Brody spent his first birthday in the hospital, while Jared, Amy and Cadance stayed at the Ronald McDonald House where kindly individuals brought meals to the family. Jared’s mother visited the family in Portland and ended up staying there with the rest of the family. She cared for Cadance while Amy did hospital time and Jared shuttled between the two.
Under these circumstances, the challenge of trying to provide a normal life for Cadance was overwhelming.
“The only normal life Cadance got during that time was in the Ronald McDonald House. They had a playground,” said Amy.
Only two places in the United States conduct the genetic testing for HUS. The testing takes six months to determine the existence of a genetic gene or a mutated gene.
Cadance and Brody are very loving to each other. Now that the family is home, Cadance often interrupts her play to run over and give her brother a hug.
“I want to ask the community to pray with us for my children and especially for Brody,” Amy said.
Jared, 26, and Amy, 27, are graduates of Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs, where Jared played basketball.
Jared has graduated from the Police Academy in Napa, but in the difficult economic times, the Placerville Police Department and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office are not currently hiring. He found employment as a security officer at Red Hawk Casino for 30 hours a week. Amy was formerly a probation officer in Amador County, but she quit work for the children.
“I even asked for my old job back, but they’re leaving the position vacant because of the economy,” she said.
Jared and Amy carry what Amy called stop-gap health insurance on their own. She said they are hoping to get better health coverage through Jared’s employment.
Atypical HUS attacks mostly children. The disease is so rare that only 300 cases exist in the United States, and not a great deal of research has been done. Because each case is different, no standard treatment exists. HUS necessitates either a lifetime on dialysis or a kidney transplant, but the disease often destroys the transplanted kidney. Red blood cells break down and clot and pass through the kidneys, lacerating them. HUS can also cause seizures or result in neurological damage. HUS is a syndrome, and syndromes involve more than one biological system. HUS involves the blood, the vascular system and the kidneys.
 Atypical HUS should not be confused with typical HUS, for important differences exist between the two forms of the disease. Typical HUS is not reoccurring; it is not genetically linked; it does not permanently damage the kidneys; it is triggered by E. coli or salmonella.
“We’re outdoors people. We love camping. But now we’re afraid to go, because we don’t want Brody far from a hospital,” Amy said.
Friends of the Swarbricks are going into action on behalf of the family.
To raise money to help HUS research, a foundation is in the planning stages..
To help meet the family’s immediate needs, including the cost of gas for three trips to Roseville a week, a fund has been set up at U.S. Bank. To contribute, go to any U.S. Bank and identify account Brody Swarbrick 153462428019.
To help with Brody’s medical expenses a spaghetti feed is taking place on Friday, May 29, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Ponderosa High School cafeteria, 3661 Ponderosa Road, Shingle Springs. Cost is $15 for individual tickets and $10 for three or more, and tickets can be purchased at the door. The menu includes spaghetti with different sauces, salad, bread and desert. There will be a silent auction, face painting, live music and the Kings Dancers.
 CADANCE SWARBRICK, 3, and her brother Brody, 1, play at their home in El Dorado. Brody suffers from Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, and Cadance could be at risk. The children's parents are Jared and Amy Swarbrick of El Dorado, both graduates of Ponderosa High School in Shingle Springs.
To see more photos of the Swarbrick family and to read the account of Brody’s hospital stay, go to www.littleswarbrickfamily.blogspot.com.
To contact Rosemary Revell, e-mail rrevell@mtdemocrat.net or phone (530) 344-5068.
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