COTA for James Swaggy

Our Story

Tenacious 14-year-old ALPS student at Baird Middle School.  Incredibly enthusiastic about school and making a difference with his leadership. He encourages peers to accomplish their task and do their best by saying “Come on you can do it” or “its ok guys, its only 2 pages.  Very positive, humorous, and full of swag. James Gonzalez is known to many as Swaggy. His presence makes a difference to all students on campus. Swaggy is the youngest of the family yet rules everything and everyone, our family is centered around him.  We have been saddened by the unexpected turn of event happening so quickly. Late November James had high temperatures and runny nose along with catching COVID. In December, the doctors told us that he must make drastic changes to his diet and now see a nutritionist.  James also acquired an Iron Deficiency. Without enough iron James body couldn’t produce enough substance in his red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen. Which ultimately left James very tired and short of breath at times. Then comes the day no parent wants to hear. On February 6^th James was transferred by ambulance to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford to see a liver specialist. From there it became one thing after another. Immediately having to take several tests, ultrasounds, biopsy, MRI’s. February 9^th was the day that we found out his liver was too damaged. James had suffered Acute Liver Failure. He has undergone two blood transfusions and been on medication to fight infections (Valley Fever). Since then, the infection has cleared up. While on this journey doctors let us know that James will need a Gastrostomy “G-Tube” Tube which will help him gain more weight before surgery. As of February 29^th  the N-tube procedure has been a success. James has slowly been showing signs of being back to himself. Yet we have a long road ahead of us. Swaggy has officially been put on the donor list. We have moved from the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital to the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford. We go back and forth to make sure James is receiving all his medications and testing. We would like to Thank everyone for their prayers, calls, text messages, and visits.