Axel Clarke COTA Fund

https://cota.org/campaigns/COTAforAxelwithLove Please help my nephew with anything you can. His story told by his mother below: Axel started off like any other child. He was happy, healthy, strong, and mischievous. He loved chasing his older brothers and sneaking treats to the family dog. Shortly after his first birthday he started getting sick. There was no rhyme or reason for it. He got sick back-to-back and began to struggle. When cancer was the leading prognosis, his doctors pushed for Axel to get more lab work ASAP. That push led him to the emergency room, which saved his life. It was ultimately discovered that he did not have cancer but instead was in full heart failure. After every level of testing, the cause is still unknown. He was fading fast and his best hope was being transported to Stanford Children’s Hospital. Axel held on long enough to be placed from the gurney to his hospital bed where his vitals plummeted. Emergency procedures were used to save his life that night. His parents could only watch in horror as the medical teams tried their best. His parents remember optimistically, yet naively, asking, “there’s still a chance his heart will just heal itself, right?” There was a pause and a very soft, but firm response. “Axel is critically ill. A part of his heart has died. He needs a transplant. Axel needs a new heart.” Since then, teams of doctors and machines have been used to keep him going. Axel is recovering on a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD). He is hooked up to machines that keep him alive and he cannot leave the hospital until after transplant. Axel's parents take turns being with him at the hospital and being home with his brothers. The need to be present with Axel has caused the family to be reduced to one income. For Axel and his family, this is a difficult marathon. With medical bills and expenses beginning to pile on, the family is seeking help from COTA to keep their family strong and help relieve some of the financial stress as they move through this journey together. The Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.