Give4Gav is an organization designed to help children affected by Spinal Muscular Atrophy ("SMA"). SMA is a genetic disease that has no current treatment or cure. SMA causes respiratory failure due to low muscle tone and is the leading genetic killer in infants. Give4Gav was founded in 2010 by Brad and Crystal Huffman and Amber Norton. Brad and Crystal lost their son Gavin to this tragic disease June 22, 2010.
About the Huffman Family
Brad and I were married on 8/8/08 and found out we were expecting our first child in March of 2009. We were so excited to expand our family and to be parents. Our beautiful son Gavin Lucas Huffman was born on November 16, 2009. He was 7 lbs 9 oz and healthy as can be. Everything was going great with our family until Gavin's two month check up. We noticed that his arms were rotating in so we brought that to our pediatrician's attention. She then started examining him and realized that he did not have any reflexes. On that day, January 15th, we went to a neurologist to get her opinion. She told us a few things that could cause this to happen but was most concerned with SMA. Of course, Brad and I were in denial. Our perfect baby did not have this terminal disease! Monday, January 18th, Gavin was admitted into the hospital for aspiration pneumonia. Once we told the hospital that he might have SMA they started treating him like he did. They did a swallow study and found that he was silently aspirating and refluxing so they told me that I could not feed him by mouth anymore and put a NJ tube down his nose. Our perfect life was falling to pieces in minutes. The hospital drew blood for the SMA testing to confirm and said that we would receive the results in 2-4 weeks. February 2, 2010 was one of the worst days of our lives. Gavin was diagnosed with SMA type 1 and had a life expecting of less than a year. Brad and I were determined to beat SMA and not have our son taken from us. We took him to see several specialists and then we finally realized that there is nothing we could do for our son to beat this disease so we just spent every second we could with him. On June 22, 2010, Gavin passed away peacefully at home with his mommy, daddy and two dogs (Calvin and Maggie). Our foundation has been a way for us to help raise awareness about SMA and help other families going through this tragic disease in Gavin's memory. Together we can find a cure for SMA!
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