Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Case Study

The reason for the request: Ethan and Joshua are brothers that suffer from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Feel free to go to the official MDA website, click on diseases link then DMD https://www.mda.org/disease/list to learn more about this debilitating, crippling and life threatening disease. As you can imagine, even with Medicaid & SSI caring for two boys with these needs can be tremendous and overwhelming. Unfortunately, when they want things they mostly go without said thing, sometimes even if it benefits them. In this case they both have been wanting their own personal gaming console, like an Xbox One X or Nintendo Switch gaming system. Gaming for them is very important since they are very physically limited.
Benefits of gaming for them: The benefits for them are the equivalent to a non-disabled child or teenager accomplishing something athletically or academically. It gives them a since of accomplishment and self worth which boosts their confidence and morale. Plus gaming helps keep their minds creative and encourages imagination, it helps with critical thinking, problem/puzzle solving, hand/eye coordination and even helps them to learn to work
We are contributing to this out of our own funds as we can. A little here and there including selling personal items to help raise money. However we will fall well short of that goal on our own. Which is why we are requesting the help. Rest assured this is not a case of two kids being spoiled. They go long periods of time before getting things like what we are asking for. They are content with what they have until they cannot use it anymore which serves them well. Both of them own older consoles but are over 5 and 7 years old each and on the last leg each from use. They are overdue for something good and it will be a surprise as they do not know we are trying to do this for them. Thank you for considering donating to this