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Jackson's Wish: To Help Others

Six year old Jackson Wall knows a lot about football, puzzles and police officers. He also knows a lot about a disease most 6-year-olds can't even pronounce - idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

BURLINGTON, NC -- Six year old Jackson Wall knows a lot about football, puzzles and police officers. He also knows a lot about a disease most six year olds can’t even pronounce: idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

As he describes it, "It depends on running – if you get out of breath you have pulmonary hypertension but if you don’t, you don’t have pulmonary hypertension."

Pulmonary arterial hypertension means Jackson has high pressure in the arteries of his lungs and that puts pressure on the right side of his heart. Idiopathic means there’s no known cause. All together, it's a rare disease.

"I think the statistics are one in a million," Matt Wall, Jackson's father, said.

Jackson was diagnosed when he was just 14 months old. Matt and his wife, Jayna, were brand new parents.

"I mean it was just completely world shattering," Jayna said. "Basically the doctor’s first words when we got the diagnoses was, ‘It’s not a good diagnosis.' They were telling us he wouldn't’t live past six."

"I remember being in the hospital that day when we heard the news and Jayna lost it for a couple of minutes and then after that she said, ‘We’re fighting we are not going to let this beat us,’" Matt said. "And that’s what we’ve done."

They’re fighting with regular visits to the doctor, expensive medicine and a subcutaneous pump that keeps a drug called Remodulin in Jackson 24/7. It’s medicine that keeps Jackson alive. The survival rate for someone who doesn't’t treat idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension is a little more than two years.

"He’s very aware that he has pulmonary hypertension," Jayna said. "He knows that it’s a lung disease, that it affects his heart as well. He’s not as aware of prognosis because it’s not something we want to talk about."

On the Wall family's refrigerator hangs a portrait, drawn by Jackson. At first glance it seems to be a drawing of their family. Once Jackson explains his stick figures though, you realize it shows Matt, Jayna, Jackson, his doctor, Dr. Hill and Jackson's medicine pump.

"I want Dr. Hill to take my site out so I can just be free," Jackson said.

So when Jackson just gets to be a six year old it's a big deal. In January he went to Florida with 'Make A Wish.' His wish was to meet his favorite superhero, Spider-Man.

"I’m telling ya, it was awesome," he said.

But the awesome doesn't stop there.

"I want other kids to have a make a wish a trip," Jackson said.

Kids like Jake Munson, a 17 year old with chronic myeloid leukemia. In front of hundreds of people Jake found out that his wish was granted. He’s going to the Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini plants in Italy this summer. Thanks in part to a special six year old.

"I just really feel bad for other kids," Jackson said.

Jackson is raising money to wish it forward, a campaign to make other wishes come true. He raised $1,200 with a lemonade stand.

"Where can I sign up?" Jake asked, "Because I want to help with that. I’d like to meet him now and thank him for all that he’s doing for Wish."

Jackson is not done yet. Because his heart, while sick, is good. While Jackson’s diagnosis is one in a million, so is he.

"You just meet Jackson and you know that he’s special and we believe that God has big plans for him and he’s going to be here for those plans," Jayna.

Jackson has a few plans of his own and he doesn't’t let idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension get in his way. Playing football, soccer, even becoming a police officer. But his biggest plan of all: a cure.

"We will find a cure for pulmonary hypertension and everybody could be free from pulmonary hypertension," Jackson said.

To learn more about how you can help Jackson wish it forward and help other families dealing with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, check out his Facebook page.

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