Youngstown family remains full of holiday spirit despite 4-year-old's ailments
YOUNGSTOWN
Ericka and Kirk Flaherty aren’t yet sure where they’ll spend Christmas morning with their five children.
Hopefully they’ll be at their Youngstown home, but there’s always the chance that Santa will have to pay a visit to a room at Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley’s Beeghly Campus in Boardman.
The Flahertys’ youngest son, Chase, 4, struggles with medical conditions resulting from his premature birth 27 weeks into Ericka’s pregnancy. Chase spent the first four months – plus one day, his mother notes – of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit at Akron Children’s.
During those first weeks, he battled numerous conditions, including a brain bleed. Since then, he’s received treatment for chronic pneumonia and lung disease, cerebral palsy, asthma, anemia, a seizure and an issue with blood vessels leading to his heart.
He’s also undergone eye surgery and blood transfusions, and still wears leg braces to prevent him from “tip-toeing,” which is due to a shortened Achilles tendon and the cerebral palsy symptoms.
“He’d come home one month, and then the next month he’d go back to the hospital because he’d get pneumonia,” said his mother, explaining his medical history as an orthodist adjusted Chase’s leg braces. “He got a shot for RSV [respiratory syncytial virus]. That’s a common cold to us, but to Chase, it’s fatal.”
Chase remained securely on her lap during the orthodist visit, clinging to his mother and every few minutes interrupting her with a shy but persistent cry of, “Mom! Mom!”
“What?” Ericka patiently responded each time.
“I love you,” Chase said.
“I love you, too.”
It’s a refrain she hears regularly – almost constantly, in fact.
“He’ll say that all day long,” she explained.
Despite the obstacles Chase has faced in his four years, his mother says he’s a happy kid. That much is clear from just a few minutes with Chase – he appears sweet, loving and quick to smile.
He’s also funny in the way that only a 4-year-old can be. Ericka laughingly recalled an instance when Chase saw a puppy commercial on TV.
“He said, ‘Mom, let’s get a puppy.’”
When she told him they couldn’t because she was allergic to dogs, he exclaimed, “Mom, we won’t eat it!”
At that time, all he knew about allergies is that they prevented him from eating certain foods.
He’s also been known to correct his dad when he introduces himself as ‘Kirk.’ “Your name is ‘Dad,’” Chase will inform his father.
Those ordinary, happy memories seem to come to mind for Ericka with as much ease as her son’s litany of health scares. She appears to be at peace with the family’s difficult situation.
“At first it was stressful,” she acknowledged. “My husband would say, ‘I really don’t want him in the hospital for the holidays.’”
The family adjusted, however, and has contentedly spent previous holidays with Chase at the hospital.
“I know a lot of times it’s hard when a kid is sick around the holidays, but my family and him realize they’re there to make him better. We just make it work,” Ericka said.
The Flahertys have even taken Christmas pictures at the hospital. Family photos are a tradition for them this time of year, as are visits to displays of holiday lights, participation in charity benefits and a sibling gift exchange.
The kids – ages 13, 11, twins who are 8, and 4 – pull names and get gifts for each other at their schools’ holiday shop.
This year, Chase’s Christmas list might be difficult to achieve – he wants Chuck E. Cheese and Mario costumes. He might not be expecting them, however, as he acknowledged that he doesn’t think he’s on Santa’s “nice” list.
“I don’t want to be on the good list,” he obstinately told his mom. Upon learning that it’s the only way to get toys, however – and that his older sister is on the good list – he quickly changed his mind.
For his parents, it seems that their wish has already been granted.
Chase – who Ericka calls their “miracle” – will deal with some of his medical issues for the rest of his life, but he’s doing well. And he survived those first difficult months of his life.
“You don’t realize how blessed you are until you have a hard time with things. You appreciate the small things then,” said Ericka. “I am really blessed to have this family and this community.”