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March 10, 2009

<img src="http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/extra.gif" border=0>Webb City youth chosen as CMN’s Missouri champion<font color="#ff0000"> w/ CMN champion info </font>

By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

WEBB CITY, Mo. — When Tristen Lancaster was born, doctors said he’d never walk.

Try telling that to his family members, who can’t keep him still.

“You can’t hold him down,” said his grandfather, Rick Lancaster, of Neck City. “They said he’d never walk, but now he runs.”

Tristen is 4, and after several surgeries and therapy for multiple birth defects, he is being honored for his bravery. Tristen will represent Missouri as the state’s Children’s Miracle Network Child Champion this year.

Every year, each state honors a child who received care at a CMN hospital. The champions get a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and a visit to the White House to talk about their illnesses and how CMN has helped them.

This is the second year in a row that Missouri’s champion child has been from the Joplin area. Last year, the honor went to Abe Andrews, now 8, of Riverton, Kan.

Freeman Health System and CMN announced Tristen as Missouri’s champion Tuesday at the Webb City Wal-Mart.

Tristen was born prematurely with a variety of defects including severe laryngeal tracheomalacia, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, dysphagia, congenital scoliosis and club feet. His conditions mean he has difficulty breathing, speaking and walking.

In his four years, Tristen has had surgeries for putting in a gastric feeding tube, and for repairing an umbilical hernia, a deformed thumb and some connective tissue problems.

“He has trouble making his muscles do what he wants them to do,” said Kathy Watson, local CMN coordinator.

Melissa Brumfield, Tristen’s physical therapist, said she watched him go from having trouble sitting up to learning to play baseball and ride a bike. He went from a walker to leg braces, and he now walks unaided.

“He has truly been an amazing little guy,” Brumfield said. “He has exceeded all my goals, all of his goals and sometimes even my expectations.”

Tristen’s great-grandfather, William Pierce, of Neck City, said the boy’s progress is nothing less than astonishing.

“The Lord brought him back to us,” Pierce said tearfully.

‘Without CMN ...’

It has been a long journey for Tristen’s mother, Amber Lancaster, of Webb City. Tristen’s medical problems were unexpected, she said, and she was a frightened first-time mother who just wanted to see her baby.

“He just stayed in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for what seemed like forever,” she said of Tristen’s 45-day stay in the hospital. “The hardest part was all the tests they ran, and no one could figure out what was wrong with him.”

Although Tristen continues to improve with weekly therapy, he still has difficulty with his motor function and speech. And doctors still don’t have a diagnosis for his overall condition, Amber Lancaster said.

“We don’t fall into enough categories for any one condition,” she said.

CMN funding has helped pay for some of Tristen’s equipment over the years, as well as some of the equipment in the Freeman NICU.

“Without CMN’s help, we really couldn’t do it,” Amber Lancaster said. “We couldn’t provide the necessities that we needed.”

That help continued Tuesday when Wal-Mart’s corporate office, the sponsor for CMN’s Champion program, gave Amber Lancaster a $500 gift card, and the employees of the Webb City store gave her another $500 gift card.

“It’s going to be great for them to buy the things they need for this (upcoming) trip,” said Dave Warden, manager of the Webb City Wal-Mart. “They can use it for things that they don’t normally plan for.”





Local money



Locally, Children’s Miracle Network assists children from birth to 21 years old in a 14-county area of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Money that is raised helps furnish and maintain the Freeman neonatal intensive care unit, funds local organizations’ pediatric needs, and buys pediatric emergency equipment.

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