Jakob is an amazing 4 year old little boy who was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS); essentially he was born with half of a heart.  Jakob has had 10 major surgeries to-date and he will be having another open heart surgery in the spring (Fontan). Jakob also has epilepsy and cerebral palsy, which has rendered him non-verbal and unable to walk. 

It is our hope to assist Jakob and his family to ease some of their financial burden. This will allow them to purchase a seizure monitoring system, the physical therapy equipment Jakob needs; reduce medical debt and purchase a wheelchair accessible van. These items have become beyond their family's finances, yet they are vital for Jakob’s quality of life and are valuable tools for Jakob's daily care.

Our family is humbled by and greatly appreciates your prayers, support and donations!  Please keep Jakob in your prayers for a complication free surgery and a speedy recovery.

Read more about Jakob's family's story below...

Jakob's Story

Tony and Lisa are the proud parents of 5 children (ages 19, 18, 12, 4 and 11 months). Jakob, their amazing 4 year old little boy, was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS); essentially he was born with half of a heart.

Jakob’s had 10 major surgeries to-date and will be having another open heart surgery this spring. After Jakob’s second open heart surgery he suffered a stroke. Due to brain injuries from the stroke, he developed both Epilepsy, which has caused several life threatening seizures, and Cerebral Palsy, which has rendered him nonverbal and unable to walk.

Tony and Lisa are loving, devoted, hardworking and all around incredible parents. Life has been an ongoing battle for the family. The life events and circumstances that they’ve encountered over the past 4 years have been overwhelming to say the least. In addition to Jakob’s 10 major surgeries, there have been several times that Jakob has had seizures, which caused him to stop breathing and Tony or Lisa have had to perform CPR on Jakob.

Tony and Lisa fight daily and selflessly to assure that Jakob is receiving the very best medical care possible and they work very hard to make sure that their other 4 children come first as well. The past 4 years have not only been difficult mentally, physically and emotionally, but the years have put a major financial strain on the family and left them with medical debt that seems impossible to get out from under and the time spent constantly fighting has taken away from their ability to focus on getting caught up, so they can spend more quality time with the children and so Tony can focus on his career.

Unfortunately, after Jakob was born, Lisa was laid off from her job of 10+ years; because she could no longer put in the demanding hours her employer required since she needed to be home to care for Jakob. Lisa spends most of her time scheduling appointments and chasing doctors and medications. She makes sure that Jakob is able to attend speech twice a week, occupational and physical therapy twice a week and she participates in Jakob’s in-home therapy five times a week and gets Jakob to his various doctor appointments throughout the week.

Tony and Lisa have exhausted their savings and 401k's; having worked very hard to cover Jakob’s previous monthly medical expenses ($4,000 a month or more); all while attempting to keep up with the tens of thousands of dollars of hospital and doctor bills. They ended up having to sell everything; their family home, rental property, vehicles and more to reduce their cost of living and to payoff medical bills.

Tony works on average 60-70 hours a week to provide for the family. He also makes time to research all of Jakob’s procedures, medications and various medical conditions so that he and Lisa can make informed decisions about Jakob’s continuing care. While he works persistently, he still tries to spend as much quality time as he can with their children.

A couple of years ago the medical expenses became too much and caused Tony, Lisa and their children to become homeless for 6 months, living in a hotel. The programs out there would not give them any kind of assistance with medical expenses until they were essentially broke and had absolutely nothing left.

Since then, Tony and Lisa have been able to secure a 2 bedroom apartment and obtain MediCal (state insurance). 

Tony and Lisa are both real estate professionals by trade, however Tony is currently working part-time as an analyst and doing odd jobs on the side to try to make ends meet until he and Lisa can devote the time necessary to get back working in real estate. 

The outstanding medical bills on their credit haunt them on a daily basis. Dealing with the daily stress of a medically fragile child, in addition to trying to make sure that their other 4 children come first, while trying to keep a roof over their heads, let alone get ahead, has been very taxing and has robbed them from quality time as a family as well.

It is our hope to assist Jakob and his family to ease some of their financial burden. This will allow them to reduce medical debt, purchase a seizure monitoring system, the physical therapy equipment Jakob needs and a wheelchair accessible van. These items are beyond their finances, yet they are vital for Jakob’s quality of life and are valuable tools for Jakob's daily care.

Our family is humbled by and greatly appreciates your prayers, support and donations