As writen by Alex's mother:

My son Alex was born a beautiful, healthy baby. He was a happy little boy who achieved all those normal milestones that little boys can achieve. He was always very smart and loved books. When he was only 4 years old he was able to read 1st grade level books. When he was 4 1/2 on the first day of summer, a beautiful day, his whole life change tragically as did the lives of all those who loved him. What a shock it was to learn that my beautiful boy head been severely denied oxygen by near drowning. But he did survive. Despite all the negative words of the doctors and no positive kind of prognosis for Alex, he pulled through and far surpassed everything I was told. Complete and total devastation of the brain? they said. I said you don't know me, my son or our God. So we'll see.

Alex is considered to have spastic quadraparesis. Due to the anoxic insult to his brain he cannot direct his body what to do. Alex was in a coma for many months. He had several surgeries including putting in a traech, a feeding tube and trying to stop reflux. He progressed over the years, but his progress is inconsistent. His seizure disorder always interfered. He learned how to eat pureed food, but couldn't swallow good enough for liquids. So many times we would achieve a goal and I would feel we were moving forward, only to have something else change that would set us back 10 steps. Alex receives PT, OT and speech therapies while at school. He has made some progress both cognitively and physically, but is still totally dependent for all his daily needs. He can only communicate by facial expressions. He rarely smiles, but is pretty good at letting me know if he is unhappy. Unfortunately, it's a guessing game as to what is actually making him unhappy since he can't tell me.

Alex continues to take 2 steps forward 3 steps back and recently lost his swallow and his ability to eat. With the help of hyperbaric oxygen I am believing that there is not complete and total devastation of the brain. I believe there are cells that will be fired up again. We need help to get the HBO treatments and therasuit therapy for Alex. Alex works very hard to try to achieve his goals and get his life back. Please consider helping him too and please include us in your prayers.

Nancy Walker
City of Cohoes