Caroline’s Cart makes life easier for Langdon family

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

Last year Tara and Brock Lockie saw just how generous the community of Langdon could be. The family had been fundraising to buy a pool for their son Braxton, and thanks to community support they met the $30,000 goal and had the pool built by the end of June 2014. “It was amazing the community support that came from the Zumbathon, from the Neighbourhood Church in Langdon, (from) strangers that heard our story in the paper and wanted to help out. It was incredible the amount of support that we got,” said Tara Lockie. Recently Buy-Low Foods in Langdon also showed their support for the family, and for other families in the community, by purchasing a Caroline’s Cart that was designed specifically for special needs children. “It is an awesome purchase that Buy-Low made for the community. I know there are other families with different needs that will be able to use it,” said Lockie. “Braxton in particular needed some sort of accommodation when we go grocery shopping up until now because he can’t sit up in a typical shopping cart because of all of his conditions. “I would have to have him in his stroller and I could either shop as much as a basket could carry which is not very much, or I’ve also attempted to push the stroller and pull a regular shopping cart which still doesn’t work very well.” She said some of the employees had seen her shopping, and struggling, and they helped get the ball rolling. Tyler Gludovatz, store manager of Buy-Low Foods, met with Lockie, saw how awkward it was for her to get her groceries, and looked into the Caroline’s Carts. “When they told me the cart was on order I couldn’t believe it, because I know a lot of people really have to fight to try and get any sort of change,” said Lockie. The cart cost approximately $1,200 and is money well spent in the eyes of Buy-Low and the community. “For us it’s not about the money, it’s about helping the community. It’s something for everyone, and it’s something that diversifies us and helps the community. That’s what Buy-Low is a big part of is our community and it’s just one way we can show that,” said Gludovatz. The Lockies found out when Tara was pregnant with Braxton that something was wrong, but they weren’t sure what. Since birth Braxton, now 19-months-old, has had surgeries to remove cataracts from both eyes, and had a feeding tube inserted. He has also had MRIs and EEGs and x-rays. He is blind, at night he needs oxygen, and last year was he was having 20 to 50 seizures per day. “Right before Christmas we found out why Braxton is the way he is. He has a gene mutation that’s extremely rare,” said Lockie. “The geneticist said there’s probably around 100 people in the world with this mutation. They don’t know a whole lot, discovering genes is so new there could be more, but they are just unlocking our genes right now, it’s very rare and when this gene mutates, it means the brain can’t form properly, so it explains why Braxton’s brain couldn’t form properly.” The gene mutation is called TUBA1A, and there is very little information to be found on it. The Lockies also found out that they do not carry that gene, which is good news with a second baby due in April. Braxton had been doing well for most of the summer and the fall. He was eating with his mouth, swimming in the pool and had begun saying some words. In December things took a turn for the worse, and he is still trying to recover from everything. “His seizures started to get really out of control and we weren’t really sure what was the right path to take. We tried to give him increased medications, but that didn’t seem to be the right path, so we’ve actually weaned him back off of his meds, he seems to be doing better again,” said Lockie. On Jan. 12 the Lockies were told that Braxton is aspirating so they will have to go back to tube feeding him. “Now that we found out about this gene mutation, and we also have a more official name for his form of epilepsy, it’s become more clear to us that his life expectancy is very short, there are not very many babies that even make it to childhood, it kind of seems like two years is a lot of kids life expectancy with the type of conditions that he has, so we are happy to just take it one day at a time,” said Lockie. “We’re very hopeful that we’ll see second birthday and beyond, especially now that he’s bouncing back after Christmas.”