Dedicated to Gabriel

This site is dedicated to Gabriel Sessions. Gabriel is a young boy who will soon turn four in August. He is vibrant, fun, and well loved, as all young children are. Gabriel lives with his family of six, and spends his time playing with his sisters and parents and attending pre-school.

In February of 2007 he was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). This form of Muscular Distrophy is one of the most severe. Symptoms include muscular weakness and first affects the muscles of the hips, pelvic area, thighs, and shoulders. It eventually effects all muscles including the heart and lungs. Survival is rare beyond the early 30's.

The District Health Department #10 and Get Well Pages are asking for your help. Gabriel's parents work a combine 130 hours a week, but recent DMD tests, diagnosis, and treatments have completely drained their savings and made it nearly impossible for them to make ends meet.

The Health Department has helped the family get Children's Special Health Care. This is a great development as it covers most of the medical needs of the family. However, the family spent their life savings and went into debt paying for testing, diagnosis, and treatment before the aid kicked in. Now despite all their hard work they owe several months of bills to the electric, phone, and gas companies. It is important for Gabriel, and his family, to not have these debts force them into uncomfortable living situations.

Additionally Gabriel will need special equipment such as a van for his wheelchair and updates to the house to make it wheelchair accessible. One of the best forms of physical therapy is aqua therapy so Gabriel can keep his muscles strong. None of these items are covered by Children's Special Healthcare. Finally, Gabriel will likely need additional enzyme tests $3000, which must be sent out of state. Unfortunately the only lab that processes this test does not take Michigan Medicaid.

Anything you can do to help Gabriel would be greatly appreciated, with proper testing and continued physical therapy he can enjoy a childhood that is as close to normal as possible. Getting these types of treatments while he is young can greatly increase his life expectancy as well as severly delay the onset of more advanced symptoms. Additionally the family could really use your help, they spent their life savings trying to help Gabriel, and are now behind on several bills despite 130 hour work weeks.

Please take a moment to visit our "Help Gabriel" page to see if you would consider helping this truly wonderful child and his family.

Welcome to Gabriel's Get Well Pages. Here are the things you can do on the site:

• Home Page: This home page contains information that was added by the site's creator regarding Gabriel's illness and recovery process.
• Virtual Flowers: On this page you can leave Virtual Flowers with a message for Gabriel
• News: This page has news about including any recovery milestones, important dates such as Birthdays, and any other general information that would be of important to Gabriel's friends and family.
• Future Treatments: This is an overview of any dates on which Gabriel will be seeing a doctor or going to the hospital for additional treatment.
• He's Unique: In this section you can add any special messages for Gabriel tell other visitors why He's special, or share an interesting story about Gabriel
• Advice: In this section you can leave any advice you have for Gabriel. Possible ideas include websites about the illness, doctors that are skilled in the field, home remedies, or anything that you feel would help make Gabriel's recovery better.
• Details: This sections has details such as where to send flowers, and the best times to visit or call.
• Gallery: In this section the site's creator will post pictures of Gabriel or family members and friends.