Darpan and Shwetha moved to the states from India in 2011. They first lived in sunny California, where they had their son Sidharth, before relocating to beautiful Virginia for a work opportunity. Family life was about as perfect as you could expect, and the three of them were living out their dreams—but a sudden illness would change everything.
“Life is very unpredictable and no one can predict what the next moment will be like at any stage,” Shwetha wrote on her Facebook page.
Sidhu (as his parents call him) was a healthy and happy child with no previous health concerns until he developed a fever and cold-like symptoms on Christmas Day 2017.
“We took him to an urgent care center since we had not set up his primary care physician yet,” Shwetha recalls. “In urgent care, the doctors said it was normal and that it would go away with a little rest.”
So they took him home, where he started to get better over the next two days—but on the fifth day his breathing became unusually fast. They rushed him back to urgent care and as a doctor was evaluating him, three-year-old Sidhu suffered a cardiac arrest and required cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
“His heart stopped for one hour,” Shwetha painfully recalls. “He had multiple organ failures including abdominal compartment syndrome requiring four separate surgeries along with dialysis.”
A grueling 52 days later, Sidhu was finally discharged from the hospital.
Sidharth breaks in his brand new Trexo at home.
Today, Sidhu struggles with mobility due to severe neurological impairments. His family desperately wants him to regain his independence and learn to walk again, so they asked Holton’s Heroes to help fund a unique device that helps people of all ages move their legs despite a lack of physical and cognitive ability to do so unassisted.
We were happy to help Sidhu’s family afford this expensive device with a significant down payment toward the $30,000 gait trainer.
“Since getting the Trexo, he’s not scissoring his legs anymore, he’s more relaxed, and his hips are getting better,” Shwetha told us. “His hips are actually going back into the socket and no longer having hip pain. His head and trunk control are better and it even seems to have affected his alertness and awareness. We’re able to notice all of these changes.
“You have no idea how thankful I am to the donors who spent their money to help us and families like ours. It’s such a huge help for the families who do not have good insurance because these kids need these expensive pieces of equipment,” Shwetha told us. “These devices help our kids avoid bigger injuries. Without this Trexo my son might’ve needed hip surgery, but now we can completely avoid that surgery.”
Make sure to visit us on Instagram to see Sidhu’s fast legs in action!
We are only able to continue to help amazing kids like Sidharth with your support, so please consider donating directly to our foundation today here.
“Thank you so much for the help. Our family will never forget your kindness.”
Check out some of our other heroes from 2021
“Tonight, we feel the power of humanity in a bath chair. Go figure. Some people feel excited about cars and other luxuries, but here I am just wanting my boy to be bathed safely,” Joshua mom wrote to us after her son received his gift from Holton’s Heroes.