Former Cape boy faces risky surgery

A fund has been established at First Midwest Bank of Dexter to help 7-year-old Dylan Ashley, the grandson of Jerry and Beverly Seabaugh of Dexter, Mo., formerly of Cape Girardeau. His immediate family members live in Jackson, Marble Hill and Charleston.

Dylan, of Dexter, was awakened at 1:30 a.m. Nov. 26 by violent vomiting, and he was nearly incoherent with pain.

A local hospital diagnosed bronchitis, tonsillitis and an ear infection. But shallow breathing and other symptoms forced his return to the hospital the next evening, on Thanksgiving. Dylan's veins had collapsed. After a spinal tap and CAT scan, he was diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation, or AVM, a malformation of masses of blood vessels. Typically, the arteries in AVM victims decrease in size the further they are from the heart. Hemorrhaging is a result of the restricted blood flow, much like an aneurysm.

He was taken by ambulance to Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis after a "bleed" near the center of his brain, after which Dylan endured a 10-day stay.

Tests indicate the problem does not exist for his identical twin, Gavin.

Dylan now faces risky surgery to eliminate the possiblity of another bleed in the brain that could result in paralysis. Plans are to meet with one of the top neurosurgeons of the world at New York's New Beth Israel Medical Center shortly after New Year's.