Nancy Squellati shares a story about a young type 1 diabetic and quadriplegic.

 

Derek’s House

by Nancy Squellati July 28, 2011

Hello Janna,

My name is Nancy Squellati. I am and have been a “fan” on facebook with the Bret Michael’s fan page.   I wanted to send a message to you all but didn’t really know how or if it was appropriate to do so on Facebooks pages.

My best friend who is much like a sister, Decky Jellison, has a 13 year old son who has type one Diabetes. They found out his diagnosis when he was 4 years old. Two weeks after his diagnosis they learned he also had a tumor sitting on his brain stem. As you can imagine- their floor ripped out from under them. Its been a long painful journey with all of his medical problems. Two years ago he underwent brain surgery  to try to remove this tumor as he was given only a short time to live. Sadly, they could not remove it all and he woke up at age 11 to being a Quadriplegic. Its been two years of living on a vent/life support- learning how to swallow again, breath on his own again and of course the battle with keeping his sugars from sky rocketing or falling too low while on steroids.

His only wish….. to be able to go back inside his home. It is not wheel chair friendly- and cant support his equipment. His garage was re converted so he could be there but he wants to be in the house with his family. Some local contractors started to work on trying to get him “home” but ran into a asbestos problem with the house……

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dereks-House/263169183697499 [ed. note: please see this page to get up-to-date information on this story.]

We all have our battles in life… and sometimes the journey is steep with many bumps along the way- but somehow we as people become each others safety net.

PS.. Let Bret Michaels know our family said “Hi” and we are very glad his health is better. I know it was a tough year for him last year as well.

~Nancy