Liam's Journey

 As most of you know, I am running the half marathon in Washington DC, March 26th, 2011. As I started training, I was thinking of some way that I could personalize my run, and raise money for someone in need. Immediately I wanted to run for Liam! I have known the Thompsons for quite a few years now, and have a great love for this family. One of my mottos I try to live by is,    "Live to Give." I believe that if we strive to live our lives by helping others, we will always be happy and have the things we need in return.

I am asking for individuals to sponsor me and my run, so I can raise money to help pay for Liam's surgeries. 100% of the money raised by my half marathon will go to Liam's care! Every little bit helps!! Even $1 will make a difference. Please find it in your hearts to help free this family from such a financial burden, they have had to take on to keep their loving son happy and healthy. The "Donate" button is on the top, right side of the blog page.

 

Here is a brief description of Liam's journey written by his father Robb Thompson. 

Liam Thompson was born in May of 2004 with a vascular condition known as lymphatic malformation (LM) in his right cheek, lips and mouth.  Liam’s LM is micro-cystic in nature, which makes it very difficult to treat in any way other than surgically.  A detailed description of these vascular anomalies can be found at www.birthmark.org.  In short, when Liam would get a cold, ear infection or cut a new tooth, his cheek would swell to the size of a grape fruit or softball.  Over the course of his first 16 months of life, Liam’s tumor grew ten times in size and began to compromise his facial nerve and ability to eat.  We searched for a local physician who could help us.

The difficulty for Liam was in trying to find a physician who could both correctly diagnose the condition and prescribe a course of treatment.  The search for this physician led us to Dr. Milton Waner at the Vascular Birthmarks Institute of New York City.  He is a world leading specialist in this area.  Dr. Waner and his associate, Dr. Gregory Levitin, gave us great hope and told us that they could help Liam.  At the time, Liam was 16 months old.  Over the next three and half years, Liam had 5 major surgeries and 9 other surgical procedures, all of which took place in New York City and required extensive recovery in addition to travel from Boise, Idaho to New York City.  At one point, we were essentially traveling to New York every 85 days for a period of two and half years.  In all, we made 16 trips to New York City for medical care, a great deal of which was not covered by the insurance company because Dr. Waner and Dr. Levitin were considered “out of network” for the insurance company.  Since 2009 Dr. Gregory Levitin has taken over the responsibility of Liam’s course of treatment.  Dr. Levitin is also a world leading expert in this field and now has an office in Los Angeles, CA.  Dr. Levitin has agreed to work with the insurance company to accept their rates for treatment and surgery.  Liam had a recent surgery in November of 2010 and is scheduled for an additional surgery in March of 2011.  The need for treatment has certainly decreased, however due to the progressive nature of this disease there is always the possibility that it may return in some form and require additional surgery down the road (although his prognosis is excellent and we are hopeful that he will not require more surgery).

Needless to say there has been a tremendous emotional and financial price to this experience for our family, and especially Liam, who is currently in Kindergarten.  To date, there has been tens of thousands of dollars worth of out of pocket expenses to cover Liam’s care.  These expenses include surgical and hospital fees, un-reimbursed travel expenses and lost wages due to multiple medical leaves from work for his care.

As a family, we have worked very hard to cover most of these expenses, although there is still a substantial balance owed the surgeon (Dr. Waner) for fees not covered by the insurance company, in addition to Liam’s need for on-going care and potential future surgeries.

                                         Liam at 6 years old.