Wish Alumni Then & Now Feature - Zach

I was 11 and in fifth grade and perfectly healthy.  My school planned the first overnight field trip to the Outer Banks and I was so excited.  This was in celebration of our journey to the next phase…middle school.  We left the school at about 6am.

At about 10am, a teacher called my mom because I had a seizure.  I didn’t know what a seizure was.  The ambulance came and I was awake but they took me to the hospital.  

My parents left work immediately and drove the 3 hours to get me.  When they arrived I was fine.  The doctor said people sometimes have a seizure and then never have another.  Some have more than one. Once you have more than one, it is seizure disorder.  That sounded so odd but other doctors said the same thing.  Apparently, many people have one seizure in their life and never have another.

About a month later it happened again in front of the entire school.  I was supposed to run in a relay race and collapsed right before the race was set to begin.  I was taken to the hospital and seemed fine.  This began a 2.5 year journey of hundreds of seizures, 6 different medications, a VNS placement, and endless doctor’s appointments.

During the worst of my seizures our nurse at Duke suggested we apply to have a wish granted from Make-A-Wish.  So, we did and began to get to know the Make-A-Wish team.  Over the next 2 years we worked with the team to talk through what my ultimate wish was going to be.  I wanted to see my favorite band, Dead and Company in another city and meet the band.  Every so often the team would reach out with different ideas and the timing wasn’t quite right. So, in October 2019, I made the decision to see Dead and Company in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve.  This was always their biggest show of the year.