General is diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy SMA type 1. For those who have never heard of SMA type 1, it is a degenerative neuromuscular disease where the SMN1 gene is missing. This specific gene creates the protein that allows his nerves from his spine to communicate with his muscles. Due to this General is not able to sit or walk on his own and needs medical support and certain specialized equipment to get around. If you haven’t met General, we hope you do one day soon because he is full of personality and a joy to be around. Since SMA only affects the muscles, he is completely cognitively aware and so smart and is pretty good at telling ‘knock knock’ jokes. Some new things he is learning are his 3rd grade sight words, adding and subtracting, and reading comprehension all using his Tobii Dynavox eye gaze device. He is a big sports lover, his favorites right now are MMA fighting and hockey! He just went to his first San Diego Gulls game for his 10th birthday!

General has a big year ahead and there are 2 main things we are raising money for:

More immediate need (June 2026): Goal $8,000

General will be switching to a trach instead of bipap this June due to some respiratory issues due to the degenerative nature of SMA. This medical procedure will allow him to breathe more easily and allow us to clear his airway more effectively. This is General's 2nd surgery ever and his recovery could be as little as 1 week up to 6 weeks. Two people are needed at the hospital at all times to be trained in his new care. General's dad passed away last year (Feb 2025) so myself and my best friend will be away from our families and doing trach training at the hospital with General. Since we are both General's caregivers with IHSS and WPCS, we will both be losing all of our income while General is in the hospital for this procedure. My best friend's husband has seizures and is unable to work, so together we bring in the only income for our households. We are trying to raise funds to cover 1 month of our mortgage ($4484) + $3000 for 1 months room and board in Orange, CA at either an AirBNB or hotel near CHOC Childrens- if anyone has an air bnb in this area they would be willing to offer at a discounted price- we are open to that option as well, and $2000 for food costs for Kelly and I while we are at the hospital and to cover food for our families at home (5 people). 

Converted Van for General's transport: Goal $70,000

This is our larger need. General does have Inland Regional Services and we are working with them to hopefully cover the conversion needed for a van, however they are strict with what they cover and the van I would need to purchase is limited to a few different makes/models, be less than 2 years old and driven less than 50,000 miles. They only cover the cost of the conversion and they will not help with the purchase of an already converted van. The average cost of an already converted van is $60,000 to $70,000 from a certified vendor. A brand new van that they will convert is $35,000 to $50,000 and will take 6-8 weeks for that conversion. If anyone would want to donate a converted van in good condition we would also be open to this option as well. 

Anything donated for our more immediate need of General's trach surgery stay, if in excess will go towards our larger need of a converted van for General's transport.