Sign up today for the 3k Community Fun Walk to benefit the Edgertons! Buddies Without Boundaries is working to help provide a special conversion lift van to this wonderful family.

The Edgerton's are a local neighborhood family with a wonderful gift of love, support and joy. Loved by all who know them, this special family makes a dynamic impression to everyone they meet.

Buddies Without Boundaries has chosen to help create the Edgerton Family Fund which has been established for their child Nathan. Here is Nathan's story, as told by his dad:

"Nathan Tyler Edgerton was born on March 15, 2007 weighing 1lb 12oz. Nathan, along with his identical twin brother Jonathan had to be delivered at 27 weeks due to Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). From the beginning, Nathan was struggling to survive his premature birth. After 4 weeks of critical care at Saddleback NICU, Nathan was on the brink of death and was transported to CHOC in Orange for emergency surgery for necrotizing entrocolitis (NEC). During this time he had to be revived two times and in the surgery, they removed half of his small intestines and two-thirds of his colon. As the days passed, Nathan would get better then get sick again. His lungs colapsed at 3am one morning and we received a call from the doctor telling us we needed to come see him. We had been struggling trying to visit with him at the CHOC NICU and his twin Jonathan which was dealing with his own problems still in the Saddleback NICU. As the weeks passed Nathan, our little miracle, slowly began to get stronger. So on moms birthday, we finally were able to bring him home from the hospital.

Since Nathan has been at home, he has had many ups and downs. He has been admitted into the hospital 24 times and has had 3 surgeries. Nathan is a strong fighter and still continues to deal with his problems. Nathan was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, microcephalus, shortgut syndrome, esophageal esophagitis (EE), and cortical visual impairment (CVI). Nathan is legally blind but his vision comes and goes as has been explained to us. His vision will not be set until around the age of 7 so we continue to hope and pray that when it sets in, he will be able to see us. Although Nathan is now 2 1/2 years of age, he continues to function as a 2 month old baby. Because of the cerebral palsy affecting even his tongue, Nathan struggles to eat and is mostly fed through a feeding tube. We have been told Nathan will never talk or never walk. This breaks our hearts as we still see his personality through all of this. We still have high hopes for him as through all of this we continue to be very optomistic.

Our struggles with Nathan continue on with his transportation. Nathan is getting bigger and it gets harder to transport him from place to place. Nathan should be sitting in his wheelchair most of the time as we are told by our physical therapists. They told us this helps him and allows him to concentrate on just moving his arms. The cerebral palsy affects his brain and tells all his muscles to contract which makes him really stiff. If we isolate his legs and body, this allows him to only concentrate on movement of his arms to activate switches to help with communication. As I have to work nights, Lisa is stuck with taking Nathan to doctors appointments during the day. Lisa cannot take him in his wheelchair because it is so heavy and awkward. Lisa would have to lift the chair up to waist height to place it in our current van. This is after she puts Nathan in a car seat which does not give him the correct seating positioning and alignment. Nathan should be riding in his wheelchair in the van. If we had a van with a lift, Nathan would be able to ride correctly in the vehicle."

Kind Regards,

Tommy Edgerton

To make a donation today, please click here.

To read more about Nathan and his journey, please visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/edgerton.