Little Cayson Swartzentruber of Fairfield isn’t even a year old, and he’s fighting an extremely rare condition. On the evening of October 23rd, Cayson’s father, Matthew Swartzentruber went to pick him up, when the child suddenly went completely limp.
Three nights at Benefis hospital in Great Falls weren’t enough for Cayson, who was then taken to Seattle Children’s Hospital.
It was there that doctors diagnosed him with Acute Flaccid Myelitis, a viral spinal condition which affects 1 in 500,000 people.
The infection causes inflammation of the spinal cord, leading to muscle weakness and paralysis.
After a few weeks, Cayson is slowly on the mend.
“He’s steadily, getting better from the top down,” says Matthew. “He can squeeze his hand and stuff. When we came back from the hospital, he couldn’t do that at all.”
Cayson still has little to no function of his legs and doctor’s aren’t guaranteeing they’ll ever work fully again.
“The doctors said there’s not enough data to tell us if he will ever fully recover or not,” says his mother Crystal.
That doesn’t mean Cayson won’t keep battling - he’s got physical therapy upcoming.
Paired with the medical bills, it will be an expensive undertaking.
The teams at Fairfield Fire Department and Fairfield Ambulance are doing what they can to help.
“Pretty much everybody’s almost like family here, so if somebody’s hurt and we try and help them out,” says Fairfield Fire Chief Nick Dale.
Dale is a long-time friend to Matt, who’s volunteered at the Fire Department for more than a decade.
“Matt, he’s always been one of the guys. He’s the go-to person here at the Fire Hall if the whistle goes off,” says Dale.
Matthew says it’s weird being on the other side of a fundraiser, but he and his wife are extremely grateful.
“We’re just very grateful for the support that we’ve got and the community around us, and we feel really, really blessed to live here and have the people around us that we do,” he says.
The fundraiser will be held at the Fairfield Community Hall from 4pm-7pm on Saturday, December 7th. The community hall is located at 601 Central Avenue.
