Meet Ava: Central Minnesota Toddler Fighting For Her Sight [Ava’s Eye Journey]

Youtube/Kelly Cordes

THE LOVE OF A GRANDMA

One of our listeners reached out to us the other day, wondering if there would be any way we could help get the word out about her Granddaughter's condition, and the GoFundMe page that has been created to help this hard working and caring Minnesota family.  I looked into her story, and she had every reason in the world to reach out and have others hear about her Granddaughter's story. Meet Ava.

Happy little Ava was born in 2019. At four months old, her parents Alexandra and Jeremy Gerads, noticed that something wasn't right with her eyesight. She was diagnosed as being legally blind with little to no vision at all. Later they diagnosed Ava as having multiple eye disorders, which meant that Ava may only be able to see shadows and light if anything, but when you watch the videos of Ava getting her first pair of glasses, she was seeing something. The smile on her face says it all.

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Youtube/Kelly Cordes

THE SURGICAL BILLS HAVE BECOME OVERWHELMING

Ava has undergone 4 surgeries and 10 sedations. As you can imagine, and every parents nightmare, their insurance will not cover the majority of the costs. A devastating blow to this family, they continue to be be thankful for every moment that their beautiful precious little girl can see. You can imagine the stress that they are under, but continue to be strong and fight for Ava's sight every day. She is their life.

As with anyone that has something like this happen, usually the income drops considerably, as one parent is there providing constant care and support during the weeks and weeks of recovery after each surgery. With each round of surgery and sedation, the costs have been about $8000 for each surgery/sedation.

The family has exhausted their PTO on top of it all. Trying their very best to cover everything, the costs, the care, the worry, the hope. They give 110% and keep on giving.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

A GoFundMe page has been created to help this family with the costs of their difficult and expensive journey. I'm hoping that we have some the ability to help them out in some way. If you want to make a donation to this family, please click HERE now, and share this story with your family, your friends, your church, your organization that is looking to do good in our community.