5-Year-Old Collin Taylor, Hospitalized One Year, Would Like Cards, Drawings For His Birthday

Five-year-old Collin Taylor of Detroit, Michigan, has now spent more than a year in the hospital.

Afflicted with a rare blood condition, which has led to brain hemorrhages and two bone marrow transplants, the little guy spent both his fourth and fifth birthdays confined to a medical facility. Now St. Joseph Catholic Church of Trenton is hoping that it can get him what he wants for turning five: birthday cards and drawings from other children.

The church noted that it would make this time “extra special” in comments to the News Herald. Parishioners added that they were sure it would “lift his heart and put a smile on his face.”

Rachael Taylor, the boy’s mother, said her son is continuing treatments for the condition, which began in November 2013 when Collin Taylor “began to bruise from head to foot.” The family took him to “Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, and he was then transported to Children’s Hospital in Detroit,” the news site notes.

The disorder Collin is experiencing actually prevents the bone marrow from making new blood cells. He has been in pediatric ICU since shortly after his transfer in the fall of 2013. During that time, he also had two bone marrow transplants. The first one did not take but the second was more successful. Still, “there were complications,” the site stated.

The biggest of those complications was the development of Graft vs. Host disease, a common aftereffect of bone marrow transplants in which “donated bone marrow views the recipient’s body as foreign.” This can unleash an attack on the body, and in Collin’s case, the marrow began to attack his intestines.

Rachael says the family remains positive about the outcome for her son, and that they are “looking forward to bringing him home.” According to a donation page set up on the family’s behalf — The Collin Taylor Fund — Collin has a 6-year-old brother, a 2-year-old brother “he cannot remember,” and a baby brother he has “yet to meet.”

He spent his fourth birthday as well as Christmas 2014 in an induced coma. More from the page in case you’d like to donate more than cards and drawings.

“During the first six months of this horrifying ordeal Collin’s parents were full time residents of the Ronald McDonald House. Because of his illness and the constant threat to his life, they had to stay near while family took in their other two children. Collin’s mother Raechel lost her job and his father Ray had to take a six month leave of absence w/o pay from his. He tried to work, but every few days he would get an emergency call from the hospital and have to leave work and rush over. It was touch and go for that long! As a result they lost their home and everything in it.”

If you’d like to send cards and drawings, they can be mailed to: Collin Taylor, c/o Children’s Hospital of Michigan 3901 Beaubien St., Detroit, MI 48201. Get well, little guy!

[Image via The Collin Taylor Fund donation page]