Traumatic brain injuries are sometimes referred to as 'invisible scars' because often it's hard to tell that a person is recovering from a serious injury. When Sire's mother, Danielle, looks at her 2-year-old son each morning, she knows the fight her son must endure internally each day—it's what drives her to help him overcome any lasting effects of his TBI.
Sire was born via cesarean section in a major hospital outside Denver, Colorado in 2015. Only two days after his birthday, Sire was comfortably resting on his mother's chest as she recovered from her surgery. The two were bonding as they began their new life together. Unfortunately, that's when Sire suffered a stroke and was rushed out of the room. Doctors struggled to understand what occurred and couldn't predict what was to come.
Days later Danielle was discharged from the hospital only to be faced with the reality that her son was staying behind to recover from his stroke. Over the next few months Sire began to suffer from seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy. It broke Danielle's heart, but she instantly prepared herself mentally to give her son the quality of life he deserves.
Sire ignoring all his new therapy equipment to get his hands on Holton the Elephant.We don't blame ya buddy!
Today, thanks to his mother's advocacy and tenacity in securing him the therapy he needs, Sire is thriving in many areas, especially speech.
"Sire first only communicated [as a toddler] using his hands to point," Danielle told us. "We would spend 20 to 30 minutes trying to figure out what he wanted because he just wouldn't speak. It was frustrating, but once we were introduced to sign language, it changed everything. It wasn't long before I had to look up signs he was giving me that he learned on his own."
Sire progressed greatly as the sign language led to actual verbal communication. Now, it's hard to get him to stop talking, which is a wonderful problem to have for the parent of a brain injury survivor.
However, over the past few years, it's come to surface that Sire also suffers from spacial awareness issues, balance problems, as well as severe behavior issues that can trigger Sire to cry for hours a day.
To help Sire overcome some of his life hurdles that stem from the brain injury, Holton's Heroes was able to provide a few amazing therapeutic tools after formulating a plan with his therapist and mother. Sire received a tricycle with support handle to help with coordination, a yoga ball for physical therapy, and a body sensory sock that has proven to help calm him while giving him an outlet for excess energy. Additionally, we supplied Sire with a balance board and an Amazon Fire tablet to help him continue to advance his communication skills.
Now that Sire has been seizure-free for the past six months, we are so happy to know that Sire has a few more useful tools at his disposal as he continues to beat the odds.
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“To some people these things might seem small but Sire truly needs these items and it’s helped us out greatly. We are very grateful for Holton’s Heroes.”
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We are Holton's Heroes, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping pediatric brain injury survivors get the tools they need to succeed in recovery.
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Holton's Heroes became aware of young Caleb through Facebook. His mother, Jackie, was asking other parents of special needs kids if anyone knew where she could find more affordable therapy switches so she could continue the therapy he was doing at home. After hearing his story, we had to help.