Local family headed to D.C. to push for bill to help kids with complex illnesses

BOARDMAN

Three-year-old Chase Flaherty and his parents, Ericka and Kirk, will travel to Washington, D.C., to share with Ohio’s congressional delegation their personal story about caring for a child with complex medical conditions.

Chase’s message is brief: “The hospital makes me breathe,” he said softly at a news conference Thursday at Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley’s Beeghly Campus.

The boy and his parents, of Youngstown, will represent Akron Children’s Hospital at the Children’s Hospital Association’s Speak Now for Kids Family Advocacy Day activities on June 15-16 in the nation’s capital.

They will join representatives of five other Ohio children’s hospitals and more than 40 families from across the country to put faces of real people who need and benefit from the legislation for which they are advocating.

While there, the Flahertys will meet with the local congressional delegation on behalf of Akron Children’s Hospital to urge support for the Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act of 2015 for children with medically complex issues.