“ We will be forever grateful for God’ s miracles that have been bestowed on Jackson, and our family, through the Little Light House.”
Jackson
Jackson Doyal Wilkey was born full term in December 2011. A beautiful 6 pound 9 ounce baby boy, the first 5 months of Jackson’ s life were typical. He was meeting and exceeding milestones, smiling, cooing, and sitting up, and we were over the moon with our first baby.
Over Memorial Day weekend in 2012, we noticed a rhythmic twitching, similar the newborn moro reflex. Friends and family tried to reassure us, but we felt something was wrong. Our baby who was rolling, sitting, and smiling only days before, had seemingly lost all those milestones overnight. On Saturday of that weekend, we took him to the pediatric emergency room. It was there that Jackson was admitted for extensive testing over a 5-day period.
Jackson was diagnosed with a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy, infantile spasms. The root of his infantile spasms was determined to be a rare genetic condition called
Tuberous Sclerosis. Tuberous Sclerosis causes benign tumor growth on many vital organ systems and is the leading genetic cause of both epilepsy and autism.
After receiving Jackson’ s diagnosis, a follow up appointment with a local neurologist led us to get Jackson placed on the Little Light House waiting list. Jackson was 6 months old when he was placed on the waiting list, and we were thrilled when he was able to attend, at age 2, in August of 2014.
Jackson had been receiving PT, OT, and ST from the time of his
“ We will be forever grateful for God’ s miracles that have been bestowed on Jackson, and our family, through the Little Light House.”
diagnosis, but at the time of his enrollment in LLH he was still very delayed in speech, gross motor, and fine motor skills. He was also experiencing upwards of 100 complex partial seizures per day.
After his enrollment, Jackson began to develop social skills and interact with his peers. His gross motor skills began to dramatically improve, and he began to climb and jump. We were witnessing miracles each day.
At age 3, in February of his first year at Little Light House, Jackson underwent brain surgery at Le Bonheur
Children’ s Hospital in Memphis, TN. He had a right frontal lobectomy in order help control his refectory epilepsy. The surgery was successful, and through God’ s grace Jackson has remained seizure free since surgery.
In May of 2018, Jackson graduated from the Little Light House. During his 4 years Jackson has grown in so many ways. He can now run, ride a trike, and shoots basketball like a pro. He loves basketball and can easily shoot( and make!!) baskets on a 10-foot goal. He is now verbal, and my very favorite words are,“ I love you
Mama, I do, I do, I do.” He also loves to request chicken and fries or pizza for every meal. He has also started pre-writing and can draw vertical and horizontal lines and of course basketballs( circles).
Jackson has excelled during his time at Little Light House. We will be forever grateful for God’ s miracles that have been bestowed on Jackson, and our family, through the Little Light House.
Love, Matt, Lindsay, Landri, Jackson, and Posey Wilkey
6 | THE BEACON