Foundation stories: Jaxon, age 8

Help for double pneumonia at Niswonger Children's Hospital

Donations to the Ballad Health Foundation help support the Niswonger Children's Hospital, the only children’s hospital in the region, where kids like Jaxon go for help when they're sick.

May 4, 2018, started off as a great day. Jaxon, then 4, had played outside and helped his parents wash the car. Around dusk, Jaxon’s mom Tracy was getting ready to leave for an event at their church when her son called to her. “Mama, I don’t feel good,” he said. She assured him that he was just tired from all the day’s activities. She left Jaxon in the good care of her husband. He promised to get him to bed early so he could rest up.

“So, I went to my event thinking he was OK. I mean, he didn’t even have a runny nose. He was not sick whatsoever,” Tracy recalls. But when she returned a few hours later, she found Jaxon on the couch looking “pitiful.” He had a fever of 103˚F and he was in so much pain he couldn’t tolerate anyone talking to him or touching him. His parents knew then that they needed to get him to the hospital.

When they arrived at Niswonger Children’s Hospital, Jaxon was so weak he couldn’t walk or hold up his head. Doctors performed a chest x-ray and diagnosed him with double pneumonia. He was treated with IV medication to quickly reduce the fluid in his lungs and to get his oxygen levels back up. But several hours later, he still wasn’t improving. They tried a second medication, but Jaxon still wasn’t responding. If the fluid was still in his lungs by the next morning, the doctors explained, Jaxon would need a chest tube inserted to drain the fluid so he could breathe better.

“I’m almost 35 years old and I have never felt the fear that I did when they came back in that room that day,” Tracy recalls. “At that point, I thought, what else can I do other than beg God for help? There were no other options.”

She called on their pastors who came that evening and prayed over Jaxon. All they could do was to hope the prayers worked. The next morning before the chest tube procedure, medical staff performed another chest x-ray on Jaxon. When they looked at the images of his lungs, they were shocked at what they saw. “Every bit of that fluid in his lungs was gone,” Tracy says. “I’m telling you, if that’s not a healing touch from God, I have no explanation.”

Jaxon’s health kept improving and he was able to go home the next day. He gradually regained his strength, but the experience changed him. He wanted to drive by the hospital. He wanted to deliver doughnuts to the nurses. He just wanted to find the best way to thank everyone who helped him get better.

“I just wanted Niswonger Children’s Hospital to have this money to pay the nurses so they can take care of sick kids.”

Earlier this year, Jaxon, now 8, found a special way to give back. When he learned about the Niswonger Children’s Hospital Radiothon fundraiser, he decided to get involved. With the help of Unicoi Community Hospital’s CEO, he wrote a letter asking for donations, then took it to school and passed it around to all of his teachers. He ended up raising more than $500. The Ballad Health Foundation was able to use funds from the Niswonger Children’s Hospital Radiothon to invest in providing Child Life Specialists the tools they need to help kids just like Jaxon.

“I just wanted Niswonger Children’s Hospital to have this money to pay the nurses so they can take care of sick kids,” he told the local news when he went to hospital to deliver the donations. Jaxon’s heartfelt effort earned him the title of 2023 Champion Child for the Children’s Miracle Network. As an ambassador, Jaxon will spend the next year advocating for the charitable needs of Niswonger Children’s Hospital. Learn more about how the Ballad Health Foundation gives back to the Appalachian Highlands.

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