Dream come true
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Given the opportunity to wish for anything, a 5-year-old boy with a rare liver disease said he wanted to build a time machine and travel back to see dinosaurs.
Since that wasn’t possible, the national charity Kids Wish Network gave Anthony Chiasson and his family the next best thing — an all-expense paid trip to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., to see dinosaur bones.
Only 4 days old, Anthony was diagnosed with an illness called Biliary Atresia, which causes the bile ducts of the liver to shut down. When he was 3 months old, he required a liver transplant. His father, Mark, was the donor.
The family traveled to Omaha for the surgery. They spent 98 days there while Anthony recovered from surgery. He required a tube for feedings. His belly would become so swollen from the build-up of fluid that it had to be drained every couple of days.
Developmental delays followed. Anthony didn’t talk until shortly after turning 2. He had to be taught how to swallow and how to eat from a spoon.
Anthony’s mother, Laurie, learned about Kids Wish Network through their social worker at the hospital. Soon after, she was on the phone with a wish coordinator named Vanessa making plans for Anthony’s wish.
Laurie Chiasson said she was impressed with her son’s uniqueness and creativity.
“Pretty much every child wants to go to Disney World,” she said. “His ideas aren’t always the same as the kids in his class. I’m proud of him for choosing something that he loves.”
During the trip, the family received a private tour of the National Museum of Natural History with a paleontologist, Matt Carrano, who took the family behind the scenes to a warehouse where the museum stores incomplete fossils and other items not on public display.
They also had a private tour of the National Air and Space Museum and a visit to The National Zoo.
Plane tickets, meals, limousine transportation, a hotel suite and spending money were provided.
“It was a magical trip,” Laurie Chiasson said.
“I could take him to D.C. That’s within our means,” she added. “But to call and get a private tour with a paleontologist, they’d laugh at me.”
Ask Anthony to name the best part of the trip and he can’t do it.
“Just the whole thing,” he said.
“There was a T-rex skeleton. He wasn’t moving because it was just a fossil,” Anthony said. “I was a little bit scared because of all the sharp teeth and the claws.”
Laurie Chiasson said Anthony became interested in dinosaurs after discovering his uncle’s collection of toy dinosaurs at his grandmother’s house one day. Soon after, an aunt gave Anthony a hardcover book with stories and pictures of all types of dinosaurs.
“This is bedtime reading,” Laurie Chiasson joked, holding up the thick volume. “There’s no nursery rhymes.”
Anthony, a kindergarten student at St. Jude Catholic School, still has a suppressed immune system and has to take anti-rejection medication daily. A recent case of the flu required close monitoring by doctors. Chicken pox two years ago landed him a hospital stay.
Anthony knows how lucky he is and proudly lifts his shirt to show-off the scar from his transplant surgery.
“He needs to know and understand,” Laurie Chiasson said. “It’s a part of who he is. He’s got to know the facts that he was very sick and we went to the very best place to take care of him.”
Anthony doesn’t plan to let go of his fascination with dinosaurs any time soon.
“When I’m a grown-up, I’m going to be a paleontologist just like Mr. Matt,” Anthony said.
Kids Wish Network is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to infusing hope, creating happy memories and improving the quality of life for children, according to a news release. If you know of a child between the ages of 3 and 18 who may be in need of its wish granting services, call (727) 937-3600 or toll free (888) 918-9004. For more information, visit the organization’s Web site at http://www.kidswishnetwork.org.
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