Merry Christmas to all of you !

The Christmas Miracle continues. Mighty MikeyD the Miracle in sneakers has come a long way in the past year. Two years ago today MikeyD came home from the hospital in his new wheelchair.
He continues to battle back everyday. Now he is back at Bayshore in his old familiar setting with great friends and great teachers, What a support system for him. MikeyD is learning to play basketball again last Sunday night we had an AWG huddle it was awesome  to see a great group of fathers and sons that were praying for MikeyD's recovery watch him not only play basketball but watch him score. Thanks to each and every one of you for your prayers and support God continues to heal the little miracle boy. 

We truly believe it is because of all your prayers.

No one can believe MikeyD is doing what he is doing the Neurologist look at his brain scan and they are amazed.

We ask God this Christmas to please continue to heal our MikeyD.

Christmas Triduum Prayer.

O Divine Jesus, the Heavenly message at your birth was "peace on earth and  goodwill to all" bring your peace , your joy , your happiness, into our home this Christmas, bless all the members of our family and friends reading this, those at home and those who  will be absent this Christmas. Inflame our hearts with your love . Keep us close to you and each other now and throughout the year ahead.

Amen !!!

Keep the faith.. We believe in Miracles.

please keep praying and posting for MikeyD
You can Wish MikeyD a Merry Christmas right here,

Thanks to all of you for helping us make the Heart Screening for the Children a major success,
At the screening alone we helped save the lives of 17 children and saved the families a lot of pain and suffering hopefully the MikeyD foundation will save more live in 2015 and beyond.
We received an email from a mom on Saturday whose son was at the screening and had a very successful surgery at CHOP on Friday. That is one of the best Christmas Presents we could ever receive.

From all the Doherty family to all of you and your families we wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year !!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you !

On behalf of the Doherty and the Dolan family this Thanksgiving we would like to give thanks to all of you who helped make the Heart screening for the kids such a success that day. I do not want to mention anyone's name in case I  forget someone. We would like to thank all the volunteers ,  Doctors and Nurses . St Mary’s, Mater Dei . Bayshore CHOP, and Youth Heart Watch.  Together  we potentially saved the lives of 17 children that day.

 I would like to share with you one of the phone calls I received from a little boy’s mother who called to thank us for doing the Heart screening. When she started to tell me the story I got the chills. Her son was scheduled to have surgery a few weeks after the screening for something non heart related she told me that they did the pre-op  work and said he was approved for the surgery . While at the screening he was diagnosed with Wolf -Parkinson- White syndrome an electrical problem of the heart. The doctors told her if he had the surgery he would of went into Sudden Cardiac Arrest while under anesthesia . this is just one of the many reasons for you to know that volunteering your time that day was well worth it. Thank you all again for giving us your time on a Saturday to help save children’s lives and save their parents the pain and suffering. We know all too well firsthand as a family the heartache pain and suffering that a mother, father, brother , sister and the rest of the family relatives  go through after SCA of a child. Two Thanksgivings ago little MikeyD was in a wheelchair could not use his hand or arms and could not speak.

Thanks to God and all of you praying for him we live with a miracle every day. As we look back and reflect on the journey we can only say thank you to each and every one of you for all your prayers and support. MikeyD will continue to save other children. I promise.

Thank you all again for everything especially Praying and posting your kind words of support here for MikeyD.

Please remember MikeyD in your prayers on this Thanksgiving As Well for his continued recovery on the long road back.

We wish all of you and your families a Happy, Healthy and Blessed Thanksgiving from all the Doherty’s 

Please see the  new recovery Flipagram  below that Ciara made for her brother when you have a chance.

http://flipagram.com/f/ML3yugLmqg

Please keep praying for MikeyD’ Recovery !!!

Help Me Thanksgiving  Prayer

O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.

Amen.  

www.mightymikeyd.com 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU

Remember 

We Believe in Miracles !!!

The Mighty MikeyD Heart Screening for the Kids ! Volunteers Needed.

I thought I was done posting for Mighty MikeyD and had done my last post. As I said before I do not want to bore anyone.

I will give a quick update on MikeyD  at the end of this post.  This post is more about the MikeyD Heart screening for the Kids. As I promised before that when MikeyD was recovering and doing better Our family would pay it forward to help save the lives of other Children. We are doing that every day now and will continue to do it forever through the MikeyD Foundation that we set up. To date we have saved 11 Lives that we know of and hopefully more that we do not know of. Some have been as far away as Dallas Texas as a matter of fact we had 2 kids on the same team in Dallas that were screened and found a problem. One we found out about just the other night Moya met a friend in Middletown who’s kids went to school with our kids they have 3 kids and had  all three screened and one had a heart condition that was number 11. We are having the Heart  screening that we had to postpone last time due to the overwhelming response with the help of the Dolan family on Saturday September 27^th at St. Mary’s  Mater Dei High School Gym. We had the same overwhelming response this time but we were ready for it as far as Medical staff.

Right now we have 500 Kids signed up. Do you believe 500 kids on a Saturday coming to get a Heart screening from the best Children’s Hospital in the country ? I think Mighty Mikeyd is doing his job in spreading the word and saving kids’ lives.

People are listening and becoming aware of this growing problem. Middletown football even canceled a practice due to the heat.

We have one small problem we need a lot of Volunteers we will have over 1000 people coming through for the day.

We still need more Nurses for taking Height, Weight and blood pressure. We could use EKG and Echo techs. While the kids are in line for screenings we will be teaching them how to use an AED and how to do CPR so we still need more volunteers who can demonstrate CPR.

We need to go to CHOP on Friday night load a truck with medical equipment and drive it to Mater Dei that night.

We need help to unload that truck on Saturday morning.

We will need help to load that truck up on Saturday afternoon and have someone bring it back to CHOP Saturday or Sunday.

We will need people to help with the registration table the Consent table and the sign out table. We will need help with the foot traffic and directing people where to go next.

So it is not just medical people that we need. Please forward this link to the Mighty MikeyD site  to as many people as  you can to see if we can get some help for this great cause saving Children’s Lives !

You can email Lorraine at lgoode50@gmail.com or let us know on the blog here if you can help us out .

Quick update on Mighty MikeyD the fighter he is transitioning from the Children’s Specialized Hospital to Bayshore Middle school. That boy never ever gives up he keeps on doing what they said could not be done. I spoke with one of his Physical therapist the other day and she said I know this may not have been the path that he chose but you should be very proud of him he has come a long way and she has never met anyone with that kind of drive he keeps pushing himself while others sit around and say they had enough. He still battles every day with memory and learning disabilities but he battles .We believe in the Miracle we all witnessed with all your prayers and support from a great community.

Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU
Remember 

We Believe in Miracles !!!

Please keep praying for MikeyD’ Recovery !!!

Busy Week Bayshore and HS North Graduations !

Mighty MikeyD continues in warrior mode. He is  fighting hard every day to battle back from the traumatic brain injury. He started his  transition back to Bayshore on Monday and Friday's. This has been great for him and has really made him feel good to get to see all his friends and classmates and not have to go to travel and hour each way to the hospital every day. MikeyD will be part of the graduation ceremony at Bayshore tomorrow night. Although he will not be officially graduating he will be walking with his friends and classmates as if he was. MikeyD has come a long way but still has a long way to go. MikeyD will be going back to the hospital every day for the summer to continue all his therapies. In September he will start his official transition back to Bayshore for the new school year he will go to the hospital 3 days a week and Bayshore 2 days a week and then Bayshore 3 days a week and the hospital 2 days a week. MikeyD said he will really miss all his friends who will be moving on. One of MikeyD’s Guardian Angels will also be graduating this week his sister Julia will be graduating on Thursday night. Congratulations Julia we are so proud of you. Thank you to Julia and Ciara for taking such great care of MikeyD. Two of MikeyD’s other guardian angels were give hero awards by the American Heart Association Bob and Rob picture of MikeyD and Bob at the award ceremony above.    Right now it  looks like The MikeyD Foundation Heart Screening for the kids will be Saturday September 27^th not official yet as soon as the date is confirmed we will let everyone know. The goal of the MikeyD foundation is to save lives of children and educate parents and coaches on SCA and Dehydration. Please keep spreading the word on the MikeyD Youth Heart screening the more we screen and educate the better.

 We will keep you posted here and at www.mightymikeyd.com  

Remember especially now that the warm weather is here to keep kids hydrated before any games or practice. We would like to thank everyone at Bayshore school for taking such great care of MikeyD we cannot thank all of you enough we really appreciate it.

You can congratulate Julia and MikeyD right here.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU
Remember 

We Believe in Miracles !!!

Please keep praying and posting for MikeyD !!!

Operation Air-Lift and Confirmation !

Mighty MikeyD has a busy week this week. He got up at 4 AM on  Tuesday morning to head for Disney World with the State Police ! Every year the NJ State Police take a few children that have been very sick to Disney world for the day. They flew out of the State Police hanger in Ewing Township Early Tuesday morning and fly back late the same night. Wednesday Was a  very big day for MikeyD we all had a day that we never thought we would have Thanks to God and Peggy Dunne MikeyD Made his confirmation  sitting next to his cousin Brendan. Who would of thought one year ago that MikeyD would be able to make his confirmation. Peggy we will never be able to thank you enough for what you have done for MikeyD it was so Awesome to see him make his confirmation.

Please see note from Father Carlos that made us all feel great!

“ Congratulations Michael "Joseph" on your confirmation day. Your lifted up our hearts and spirits to God even higher today when we saw you proceeding into Church with the other teens. Mikey You are a living sign for all of us of how true and real the power of prayer is. Mikey my brother keep up the good work and know that you and your family continue to be in my prayers. May God bless us all and may Saint Joseph intercede for us all.”

 The doctors have also taken MikeyD off some of his medication and we have seen a major improvement. He was taking medication for muscle spasms caused by the traumatic brain injury, We had no idea how bad the side effects were from that medicine. MikeyD is talking and walking much better, in  the last few weeks we have seen a major recovery.

We are trying very hard to get MikeyD back to Bayshore for a day or two a week before the end of the year to start his transition back for next year.

We will keep you posted.

 It is a shame they left him out of the yearbook at Bayshore School.

I guess the old saying is true out of sight is out of mind they forgot all about MikeyD.

The screening will be bigger and better that ever.

Please keep spreading the word about the screening.

Right now it looks like it will be in September.

This will also give The MikeyD Foundation more time to raise the funds needed to screen all the Children.

We will keep you posted here and at www.mightymikeyd.com
You can Congratulate MikeyD on his confirmation right here.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU
Remember 

We Believe in Miracles !!!

Please keep praying and posting for MikeyD !!!

Monday April 21st

I am very sorry to have to do this post tonight.  I really could not believe the call I received from Dr. Vetter the other day when she told me the bad news. She told me weeks ago that they have never had a response like this for any screening that they have ever done before. they asked me to stop talking to people about the screening and said whoever I was talking to about the Heart Screening for kids were listening. they usually only get 100 to 150 kids sign up for a screening in any area. We had filled all the appointments in a day and a half after the web site was opened and they had to shut it down. We had 382 kids signed up for the screening and 150 kids on the waiting list. Unfortunately for this Saturday they could not get enough EKG and Echo techs scheduled to work to cover all the kids we had she said every family would be waiting for over three hours in line just to get through the screening and we still would not get to the 382 already signed up. She has promised me that we will screen all 532 kids on the new date. I will let everyone know as soon as possible after I have the new date. My family and the Dolan Family have worked very hard on putting this screening together and raising Funds from sponsors to pay for the screening. We will have more time now to raise funding for the extra 150 kids. I am ashamed and embarrassed that they  had to reschedule this screening. I feel like I have let everyone down.

I would like  to sincerely apologize to everyone and I hope you will understand this was totally out of my control. I am very sorry. I promise you we will screen all 532 kids. My good friend Barbara tried to make me feel better and brought up a very good positive thought she said the new date will screen the other 150 kids and a few of them may just be the kids that really needed it and will be saved from the screening.

Please forward the link for www.mightymikeyd.com  to as many people as you can via Facebook etc so they will know that this Saturday we will not be at St.Marys/Mater Dei and they can be on the lookout for the new date.

Meanwhile please keep MikeyD in your prayers for his recovery to continue. We believe in the power of prayer especially in numbers the more the better.

God grant me the serenity 
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

****Please see letter below from CHOP****

Due to the overwhelming response to the Heart Health Screening on April 26^th at St. Mary’s Mater Dei High School in Middletown, NJ, we are going to postpone our screening until the fall of 2014 to accommodate a larger number of children.  We apologize for the delay and look forward to seeing you in the fall.

For those of you who have completed the Heart Health Questionnaire, we will securely maintain your information.  We will e-mail you approximately 4 weeks prior to the next screening date to allow you to choose another appointment time for the next screening and give us an update on your child’s health history. 

Thank you for your understanding.

The Heart Health Screening Study Team:  Dr. Victoria Vetter, Noreen Dugan, and Danielle Haley

For any additional questions, please call/e-mail Noreen Dugan.

Noreen P. Dugan, RN, BSN, CCRC, HP(ASCP)

Clinical Project Manager

Clinical Trials Office

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

3535 Market Street, Office #1048

Philadelphia, Pa.  19104

 E-mail - youthheartwatch@email.chop.edu

Telephone - 267-426-5247

Beeper - 215-590-1000   Pager# - 21890

Fax - 267-426-8134

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU
Remember 

We Believe in Miracles !!!

Please keep praying and posting for MikeyD !!!

Wednesday April 9th

Mighty MikeyD is heading back to CHOP in the morning for some testing with Dr.Vetter. he will have his ICD implanted defibrillator checked out as well as some other testing.

They will check the leaky valve that was damaged from the SCA to see if it is healing.

Dr. Vetter will do a heart screening on MikeyD just the same as we will be doing for all the kids on April 26^th at St. Mary’s/Mater Dei. I am sorry I did not get to post the link here because the response from the flyers was so successful that appointments were filled in a day and a half. CHOP told me to please stop spreading the word. They said they have never had a response to a screening like this one before. Right  now we have over 300 children signed up for the screening. We are going to talk to Dr. Vetter tomorrow and ask her to please add some more so please check back and I will post the link here on the MikeyD blog site if she agrees. The MikeyD Fund will do more screenings in the future if you do not get an appointment this time you will be first in kine for the next one.  Also right now due to the amount of children we have signed up we need some more help. If anyone knows a nurse, ECG tech , Echo tech , CPR trainer and anyone else who can help with registration loading and unloading the medical equipment please pass them the link to this site and ask them to post or send an email to lgoode50@gmail.com   that will be greatly appreciated.

The more help we get the better.

We are happy that Rob and Denise Mason have joined us in our fight to save other children from SCA and  save other families from the unbelievable shock, trauma and lifelong sorrow a tragedy such as SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST brings. We will save a lot of children from the heart screenings and a lot of children from the CPR and AED training. Also by working on getting laws passed that make sure every sports team has an AED at every game and practice as well as coaches certified in CPR.

We will have CPR and AED training at the screening on April 26^th so please stop in. Warm weather is coming please keep all Kids Hydrated before any practice or games.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU  
Remember 

We Believe in Miracles !!!

Please keep praying and posting for MikeyD !!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day !

Mighty MikeyD  is still recovering and getting better and stronger. He continues to Improve which is a great thing especially after the traumatic brain injury no one knows how far back you can come with a brain injury.

Moya, Julia , Ciara and I had a family meeting with the Children's Specialized Hospital last week. Unfortunately they are not ready to release him form the Hospital yet. We were hoping they would start transitioning him back to Bayshore in April at least one day a week and then two days a week . The bad news is they said he will not be ready to be released from the hospital until next year meaning school year like next September or October . It is sad we were really hoping that MikeyD would get back to his friends and classmates at Bayshore who will all be graduating 8th grade so he could graduate  with his classmates. MikeyD left Bayshore for summer vacation that June of 6th grade  and never returned. Now it looks like he will not return to Bayshore untill next year and all is classmates will be gone. We are mourning the loss of the son, brother , grandson , nephew , cousin that we had before that tragic night and adjusting to the new MikeyD. It is really hard for all of us to watch his life as he knew it was taken away from him. MikeyD left us and was reborn he was first in a coma then he laid in bed like a baby in a crib couldn’t talk or eat was on a feeding tube and was paralyzed . MikeyD then had to learn how to walk and talk again just like a baby. He is now learning how to write again and struggles with short term memory problems. All this because of the amount of time he was down due to the response time and the lack of an AED.

We know that God  sent MikeyD back to us for a reason. One of them is to save the lives of other children and spare other families from the hardship we have suffered. I promised everyone when MikeyD was getting better my family will pay it forward and set out to help save other children. Right now the MikeyD fund is raising money with the help of Jim Dolan , Mark Peters and The Janet’s Fund to pay for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to come to Middletown and screen all kids for free to the families. Jim Dolan’s son Jimmy and Mark Peters are both Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) survivors who survived with no brain damage due to the response time with an AED. They have become great friends to MikeyD and my family. MikeyD , Jimmy and Mark share a special bond knowing what each has been through. Less than 5% of kids who suffer a SCA survive. Janet did not survive she was the same age as MikeyD when she suffered a SCA running laps at Cheerleading practice. Janet’s dad and mom Jim and Karen are the ones who got Janet’s law passed in New Jersey two weeks to the day after MikeyD went down. Part of Janets law all public and private schools K-12 must have an AED onsite at least 5 school employees to be certified in CPR/AED.

I would like to see a MikeyD law  pass legislation that all teams especially outdoors must have an AED and that all coaches be CPR/AED certified so we can save children’s lives every day and save other families from the unforgettable trauma and tragedy that SCA brings to the families of all these children. We have lost 4 children to SCA arrest in Monmouth county since MikeyD went down. We will be doing the CHOP screening on Saturday April 26^th at the St. Mary’s Mater Dei gym in Middletown for all Kids who can make it from anywhere you do not need to be from Middletown. We need your help in spreading the word to as many families as possible. Please let me know if you can help us if you know any nurses who can take Blood pressures that day it will be great. We also need admin people to check children in as well as  CPR/AED  instructors to do demonstrations.

I hope to have a link on the MikeyD blog next week where people can register their children on line and also a form that you can print and bring to the screening.Please mark your calendars now the screenings will be all day so if you have baseball practice in the morning you can come in the afternoon and vice versa. I ask you to join us in saving as many children’s lives as we  possibly can.

Please pass this link on to as many people as you can and every sports team you know via Email Facebook etc. the more children we screen the better.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU 

We Believe in Miracles !!!

Please keep praying and posting for MikeyD !!!

Happy Birthday MikeyD !

Mighty MikeyD went back to CHOP last week for his check up with Dr. Vetter and some testing of his defibrillator and pace maker. MikeyD's Defibrillator had no activity on it which is good. MikeyD does have some damage to the left ventricular from the Sudden Cardiac Arrest one of the valves has a slight leak, Dr.Vetter will follow it closely to see if it gets worse. The big scar on his chest is looking better. While we were at CHOP we met Dr. Iyer he is the surgeon who installed the built in defibrillator in MikeyD heart. The last time Dr. Iyer had seen MikeyD he was paralyzed in a wheel chair and could not talk. He had read all the neurological reports that said he would never have the use of his hands or arms. When Dr. Iyer walked in the exam room MikeyD gave him a strong firm handshake you could see the doctors face light up. When we were leaving Dr.Iyer came over to me and said I cannot believe he is using his hands and arms he was truly amazed.

This Wednesday January 15^th was MikeyD’s Birthday.

We thank God every day that he is still here with us.

MikeyD had a great surprise visit for his Birthday.

The whole Middletown High School North Basketball team and coaches came to the house to celebrate MikeyD’s Birthday! They gave him the best present he could ever get.

That meant more to MikeyD and my family than they will ever know. Coach Mark use to coach MikeyD and I could tell by the smile how happy he was to see Coach Mark again. We would like to thank all the players the coaches and the Cerbo family for all that they have done for MikeyD that night. You guys have no idea how happy you made him.

We will be forever grateful.

Then on Saturday MikeyD had another big celebration with Family and friends.

Everyone can wish MikeyD a Happy Birthday right here and we will read them to him.

For those of you that have not seen the video Ciara made for her brother here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtoyif_FrU

Remember We Believe in Miracles !

Please keep praying and posting for MikeyD.