Carter Brown’s experiences with the Shriner’s Hospital for Children have been well-documented.
He was born in Estevan, but now lives in Milestone with his parents Mike and Jennifer Brown. And he has osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), also known as brittle bone disease, which has resulted in the 11-year-old boy suffering about 20 broken bones during his life.
Carter has made repeated to the Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Montreal for treatment. Three years ago, he was named the Western Canadian Ambassador for the hospital, helping him raise funds for the valuable work taking place at the hospital.
Now he has found another way to support the children’s hospital.
Carter has created a splint kit for children undergoing treatment for OI at the hospital.
“Knowing how painful it is for each fracture, he wanted to help create a kit with splinting supplies that every OI patient at the Shriner’s Hospital in Montreal can take home with them, and be able to use as soon as they fracture,” Jennifer told the Mercury.
“Going to the emergency room and waiting sometimes hours to be treated just prolongs the pain, and he knows how awful that can be, so he wanted to help as many other kids like him as he could to get the pain handled as quickly as possible.”
Whenever he applies a splint, Carter said the fracture starts to feel better right away.
“I don’t want other kids to have to go through that (the pain of a fracture), and wait for hours and hours to get treated at the hospital,” he said.
His first trip to the hospital came when he was baby. Before that first trip, Carter said he was suffering broken bones on a regular basis. Fourteen of his 20 broken bones came before he was a month old.
“After I got my first treatment, I didn’t break for nine years,” he said.
The splint kit was launched last week when he was in Montreal for one of his regular visits. The kit is about the size of a small backpack.
The Shriner’s Hospital helped select and source the items to create a kit that is as comprehensive as possible.
“There is a one-step splint that is really easy to use, that starts out soft and it hardens after a few minutes,” said Jennifer. “There are different ace wraps, cobands (cohesive bandages), and a pair of scissors.”
A memory game helps kids learn the different bones in their body, and helps them describe the source of the pain caused by a fracture.
There will also be instructional videos on a USB stick to explain how to use all of the items in the kit, and links for the videos on the Internet. Cue cards with pictures show how to splint the fracture.
“There are so many different things that the families can use to either splint their child at home, or if they might be travelling anywhere in the world,” said Jennifer.
The hospital was a big help, Carter said, because it helped them get everything ready, and the staff has supported Carter and his family 100 per cent.
“It’s so much better having your mom or dad splint you after you fracture, and are hurting so much,” said Carter. “You don’t have to stop whatever you’re doing and go to the hospital again.”
Parents of children with OI have been splinting their kids for years, Jennifer said, and there is a strong online community where different ideas are shared. The Browns took the best of the ideas they saw, and what has worked for them, and they hope these ideas will help others.
“We can’t just go out to a store here and purchase these types of items, so having a hospital source them for us, and get in the best, most easy-to-use materials is what makes us different than some of the other kits that we can put together ourselves at home.”
The hospital was on board with the idea the moment the Browns brought it forward.
“We had originally thought that we would try to make up as many kits at our home as possible, and get them out to the OI kids that needed them, but when we talked to the hospital about Carter’s idea, they helped us realize how amazing that kit could be for so many people, and so we decided to start a big fundraising project to get as many kits made as possible for all of the OI patients in Montreal,” said Jennifer.
Carter came up with the idea last spring, after Jennifer splinted another youngster in the area who has OI. That child was in a lot of pain.
After seeing how his mother could help another child with OI, and how their home supplies were of assistance, Carter decided he wanted to do something, and get those easy-to-use materials to as many families as possible.
The kids he has spoken to about the kits think it’s a great idea as well.
He also viewed it as a great way to give back to the hospital after all the Shriners have done for him.
“We have been out to the hospital dozens of times, and everything they have done him has changed his life completely from what we thought this was going to be like,” said Jennifer. “They have given us hope when we thought there wasn’t any, all the way to the expert medical care he has received, like his IV infusions to make to make his bones stronger, and the rodding surgeries that he has gotten that have straightened his bones and allowed him to walk.”
The hospital will start distributing the kits to children at the hospital later in the spring. A child with OI will receive a kit during their visit to the hospital.
Carter’s efforts allowed him to raise $25,000 to put the kits together, and he raised enough money for all 350 patients from across Canada, places in the U.S. and around the world who receive treatment at the hospital for OI.
“We ordered cases of maple syrup in the fall and sold them in our area,” said Jennifer. “Carter asked for donations for his birthday instead of receiving gifts. He has t-shirts that our family helped design, and he has sold the last couple of years, and so the proceeds from last year’s sale went towards the kits.”
His project was the focus of Giving Tuesday for the Shriner’s Hospital. Carter made a video with Anthony Calvillo, the legendary Montreal Alouettes quarterback who Carter has befriended through their support with the hospital.
A lot of people from Estevan have supported Carter, Jennifer said. Any time he has a project or a fundraiser, the Browns receive financial assistance from local residents. The splint kit was no different.
“There would be many people in Estevan who have the shirts that he has sold, bought cans of maple syrup or donated over the Giving Tuesday fundraiser,” said Jennifer.
Carter is able to walk and run, and enjoy life as an 11-year-old boy. He has had a few fractures in the last couple of years, but knowing how to handle it and deal with it has made it a lot easier.
