About Carter

My name is Carter Buchanan, I was born on Dec 29th 2005.  It was the happiest day of mummy and daddys life as i was their first son as i have two older sisters. At just 36hrs old mummy noticed that i was having jerky movements and bought this to the attention of the hospital staff, which told her it was just shock of birth.  This continued and the paediatritions decided to take me for some bloods and this is where they became concerned.

I was taken into SCUBU (special care baby unti) where they monitored me and carried out routine blood tests to check for infections etc.  Early the next morning docs called mummy to the parents room to ask if she had ever done drugs as the movements which i showed were the same as a child in withdrawal, mummy assured them she had done nothing like it.  Days passed and eventually i got out on the ward again but that all changed the day i left the hospital when the movements started again. 

Unfortunately i have spent most of my young life in and out of hospitals and 3wks on i was rushed into hospital were docs fought to save my life due to some kind of infection.  Another few weeks passed and again i was rushed in with these jerky movements and finally sent for some testing, at 5wks i had an mri scan and an eeg carried out which all came back normal.  At 7 weeks rushed in again stopping breathing and goin blue and this is when i was transfered to the Royal Sick Childrens Hospital where again i had another MRI and EEG and was finally diagnosed with Epilepsy and started on my first drug.

This was the start of a very long and bumpy rollercoaster for me and my family. I was seizing up to 25 times in one day nearly having to be sedated twice in one day sometimes everyday with rescue medications to stop me seizing and  mummy gave up work to look after me full time.  Drug after drug things didnt improve and my quality of life deteriorated, i travelled to london for a second opinion to which nothing came of it and mummy and daddy nor the docs were any wiser as to wat was goin on.  I could not sit, crawl hold my head or even talk and no longer oral feed by the time i was 14 months i couldnt even respond to my sisters when they played with me.  I have had over 25 different drugs two courses of steriod treatments and none of them have worked.

Finally in March 08 mummy finally found a doc that said he could help me but this was at a very high price.  My family launched a fundraising campaign for Carters Journey Of hope to raise the much needed money to pay for treatment at the Childrens Memorial Hospital in Chicago. I have came this far and i wanted to show them something in return for all the hard work they have done to bring me to where i am today. Please help in any way you can there is a little boy inside of me busting to get out and with the right treatments this is possible.