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2009 Recipients Sammy Salazar was born three months premature in 1988, weighing only 2 Ibs. He was placed in an incubator for four months and developed Retinapothy of Prematurity in his eyes while in the hospital. At age three Sammy was diagnosed with Mental Retardation and, at age four, was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. Read his story...
Sherri Gaudet was caring for her elderly mother on January 21, 2009, when she collapsed, and her life was forever changed. She was misdiagnosed as having had a stroke. After many visits to different emergency rooms and doctors, she was finally diagnosed two months later with a malignant brain tumor in her left temporal lobe. Read her story...
In January 2009, Linke Jolet was working on a special project offshore helping to coordinate reconstruction after the 2008 storms. He experienced symptoms that he believed to be indications of a throat infection and swollen glands. But soon he began suffering severe headaches. After a suspicious CT scan, a syringe biopsy came back positive for cancer in a lymph node. Read his story...
In September 2008, Brandy Letchworth noticed a small lump on her forehead. After much thought and despite experiencing no other symptoms, she saw her general practitioner who, in turn, referred her to a local ENT. Tests showed a mast in her Frontal Sinus Cavity, which was subsequently biopsied and diagnosed as a Malignant Unclassified Sarcoma. Read her story... In February 2009, Felecia Jones fell ill. She had a near-death experience within a couple of days of entering the hospital. What was initially thought to be a simple sore throat turned out to be strep throat, which churned itself into a horrific bacterial infection. The bacteria rapidly consumed her entire body, which caused fluid to surround her heart and her body to go into cardiac shock. Read her story... Jeff Meyers was injured while diving during a boating trip with family on Labor Day weekend on August 30, 2008. Due to this accident, he is paralyzed from the neck down, suffering a cervical (C5) spinal cord injury. His diagnosis is Tetraparesis/Plegia, but he likes to call it “neurologically challenged.” Read his story...
In November 2008, Caleb Keleshian was busy being a typical 17- year-old boy. He was playing with his friends on a backyard trampoline and performed a back flip, a trick he had done many times in the past. This time, when he landed, he no longer had sensation in his legs. Caleb shattered his T-12 vertebrate. His spinal cord was compromised, resulting in immediate paraplegia. Read his story...
Jillian Crochet has been going to countless doctors for over a year looking for the cause of her Peripheral Neuropathy, a degeneration of the nerves that causes intense pain and burning in her feet and pain and numbness in her legs and arms. She has also dealt with thyroid-related issues since the age of 12, when she had her thyroid partially removed. Read her story...
