 |
This is a story of a little boy named Calvin Blevins, born April 26, 2002, who was born with a cleft lip and palate. It was the worst OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University), said they had ever seen. Calvin's face was open from the bottom of his nose and gaped open almost to the corners of his mouth. He was to be fed by tubes, and April, his mother was told that after some surgeries he would be just like any other child.
|
|
It wasn't until later they discovered everything centerline to his body was under developed. He has undergone; heart surgery for numerous holes in his heart, genital surgery, contracted Meningitis 3 times, he was born with no spleen, and has dysfunctional bone marrow. He is currently on the verge of Leukemia. At one time he contracted Septicemia, which is a type of infection that turns your entire body into a blood clot. That in turn became DIC, the final phase of your body bleeding from the inside out that could have led to death. Calvin has been life lighted 3 times, and is now undergoing platelet and red blood cell transfusions since his blood cells are depleting. Calvin's diagnosis now is A-plastic Animea, bone morrow failure. A bone morrow transplant took place at UNC in North Carolina. Calvin has beaten all odds in life. He is full of spirit and happiness. You cannot meet him and not fall in love. This, I believe, comes from the strength and love of his mother and grandfather and aunts and uncles. |
 |
With the cost of a transplant often exceeding $500,000, many transplant patients are unable to shoulder the financial burden of such a procedure. The Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA) is a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding communities in raising funds for transplant-needy patients. In Creedmoor, volunteers are raising funds for transplant patients like local child Calvin Blevins.
Born on April 26, 2002, Calvin was diagnosed with Bone Marrow Failure, and doctors at the University of North Carolina Medical Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, performed a life-saving cord blood transplant. An estimated $30,000 is being raised by Creedmoor volunteers.