Brothers with rare neurological disorder go trick-or-treating with MedStar
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) — Halloween came early Saturday night for two North Texas brothers who suffer from the same rare neurological disorder.
Maximillian, 5, and Christopher, 10, were able to go trick-or-treating for the first time since they were babies with the help of MedStar paramedics.
“We have two young boys, both of them with a rare disease called Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease,” their dad, Christopher Watson, said. “They’ve had it since birth. They’re both tube fed and have very little-to-no motor skills, and they don’t talk.”
Without the ambulance crews serving as escorts, the whole family would have missed out on this experience.
“It means the world to us because we’re homebodies,” Watson said. “Because of the kids, we have to stay at home. Even us ourselves, we don’t go out much. So when you see this, it’s different and it’s very exciting.”
MedStar takes nominations from the community to select the kids who get the VIP treatment. This is the ninth year for the program.
“Just the joy and happiness of being able to get out and do something they couldn’t do on their own,” said Noah Vasquez, one of the EMTs who took the boys through the neighborhood. “We have them hooked up to our monitor. We’re currently watching their vital signs to make sure they’re oxygenating good, and they don’t have any complications.”
A night without complications gave these boys and their parents memories to last a lifetime.
“It’s definitely life-changing for them and for us because we don’t get out of the house because of their conditions,” Watson said.
Christopher and Maximillian’s trick-or-treating also gave the entire community something more meaningful to celebrate this Halloween.
“We’re grateful,” said their mom, Gisela Watson. “We’re grateful there’s people out here doing this for us, because they don’t have to, but decided to do this for our kiddos.”
