James Carter Crouse This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Special Child: Disorder Zone Archives - Spina Bifida

   www.specialchild.com/archives/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/24/2003   Last Visited: 8/24/2003

   Jimmy will be 15 years old on May 2, 1999. He is an honor roll student at Mount View High School where he is a freshman class representative to the Student Government Association, a member of several clubs, and a manager of the girl's softball team. He enjoys computers, Nintendo 64, and music. He's a very typical teenager except he is living his life with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and is in a wheelchair.
   
   Jimmy, a.k.a., James Carter Crouse, was born in 1984 with spina bifida, a neural tube birth defect. At birth, he had a sac (it almost looked like an inflated balloon) on his lower back. His spinal cord and nerves were exposed and damaged at this sight in the lumbar region of his spine. Because of the nerve involvement, it was diagnosed as a myelomeningocele, the worst type of spina bifida. After only one week in the hospital, he came home to join his older brother, Joe, and to complete our family.
   
   Hydrocephalus, an accumulation of fluid in the head due to improper drainage, developed by the age of three weeks, and his first shunt was placed in the right ventricle of his brain to drain the fluid into his peritoneal cavity.
   
   During his first four years, his life, medically, was unspectacular. By the age of eighteen months, it was determined that his shunt was not functioning, but local doctors shrugged their shoulders and said he apparently didn't need it because he was not showing symptoms of shunt failure.
   
   Jimmy amazed the doctors, when at the age of two and a half years he began to walk unaided. At first, when he tried to stop, he would fall, so the doctors at Children's Hospital in Virginia prescribed a quad cane for him to use. We knew his accomplishments were just beginning when he would walk across the yard with that cane slung over his shoulder like a soldier's rifle, learning to stop on his own in just a few short months.
   
   When Jimmy was four, he attended a private nursery school in our neighborhood. The following year, he began kindergarten in the public schools in our southern West Virginia hometown of Welch. It was also during these early years that we began to notice a pronounced curvature of his spine (scoliosis) developing. Our local pediatrician made an orthopedic referral to Duke University's Myelo Clinic, and at age seven, Jimmy's medical complications from spina bifida escalated.
   
   During Jimmy's first visit to Duke, the neurosurgeon was appalled that he did not have a working shunt. After the appropriate x-rays, which showed enlarged ventricles, a second shunt was the first order of business. Then, following CT scans, MRI's, and myelograms, it was determined that he had a tethered cord (his spinal cord was caught in scar tissue from closure surgery), thus prompting surgery to release his cord. During this six week recuperation period, a homebound teacher was provided for his education. The following summer after his eighth birthday, he had his first spinal fusion, a growth fusion, where a rod was placed to correct what had become a sixty-eight degree curvature of the spine. For eight months following this surgery - almost his entire third grade year of school - he could not even sit up without a molded turtle shell brace (it extended from armpits to hips and the front and back of the brace hooked together with velcro).
   
   The rod was removed the following summer and within one year, the curvature was back to sixty degrees, which resulted in his second, permanent fusion (he has one rod called an Isola instrumentation) of ten thoracic vertebra.
   
   But, despite the medical "life," Jimmy persevered. When he was six, he played on a T-ball team. Because of the wonderful small town we live in and the caring people who live here, every time Jimmy was at bat he was always safe on first, and that one memorable evening, he traveled completely around the bases and scored! There probably wasn't a dry eye at the Little League field that night and every person there gave him a standing ovation.
   
   He remained an honor roll student throughout elementary school, participated in the marching band as a drummer (using a wheelchair for distances, like parades), and at the end of his sixth grade year, he was chosen the boy Good Citizen of Welch Elementary by our local American Legion.
   
   Middle school years were more difficult. The school was on a hill and the buildings were too old for an elevator, so Jimmy was confined to only one floor and programs were brought to him. During these two years, he also needed two new shunts placed, and the neurosurgeon, during the last surgery in April, 1998, did an endoscopic third ventriculostomy, which was placing a hole in the third ventricle to allow for additional drainage. At this time, the procedure was not being done at many hospitals, so Jimmy likes to think of himself as being on the cutting edge of medical technology. During these two years, he was a member of the Junior Beta Club (a middle school honor society) and represented his school at the county spelling bee. He also had a major role in several plays written by a local author and performed in churches and schools in the county.
   
   When I think back to that day in 1984 when Jimmy entered our lives, I can remember that the doctors told us he would never walk, but he did; I remember they told us he would never be continent (control of bowel and bladder), but he is; I remember they told us he might be mentally impaired (because of hydrocephalus), but he is far from it; I remember they told us if we chose surgery to close his back, it needed to be done within twenty-four hours or that we could choose no surgery. I thank God everyday that we chose the aggressive, surgical closure of his back. Since that time, he's probably had fifteen or more surgeries. Following his last surgery on his leg and ankle, walking has become more difficult and he now uses his wheelchair most of the time.
   
   Jimmy faces life with a smile. He's an easy-going, compassionate, and friendly human being. He touches the lives of almost everyone he knows because of his brave determination to meet the challenges of everyday life. His strong faith and reliance on God helps him, not only during his times of crisis, but in his everyday life. He realized early in life that things may be difficult, but that life is good and worth the fight; that he controls his quality of life. He has set many goals for himself, many of which he has already achieved.

2. 2. Special Child: Disorder Zone Archives - Spina Bifida

   www.specialchild.com/archives/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/6/2003   Last Visited: 6/6/2003

   Jimmy will be 15 years old on May 2, 1999. He is an honor roll student at Mount View High School where he is a freshman class representative to the Student Government Association, a member of several clubs, and a manager of the girl's softball team. He enjoys computers, Nintendo 64, and music. He's a very typical teenager except he is living his life with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and is in a wheelchair.
   
   Jimmy, a.k.a., James Carter Crouse, was born in 1984 with spina bifida, a neural tube birth defect. At birth, he had a sac (it almost looked like an inflated balloon) on his lower back. His spinal cord and nerves were exposed and damaged at this sight in the lumbar region of his spine. Because of the nerve involvement, it was diagnosed as a myelomeningocele, the worst type of spina bifida. After only one week in the hospital, he came home to join his older brother, Joe, and to complete our family.
   
   Hydrocephalus, an accumulation of fluid in the head due to improper drainage, developed by the age of three weeks, and his first shunt was placed in the right ventricle of his brain to drain the fluid into his peritoneal cavity.
   
   During his first four years, his life, medically, was unspectacular. By the age of eighteen months, it was determined that his shunt was not functioning, but local doctors shrugged their shoulders and said he apparently didn't need it because he was not showing symptoms of shunt failure.
   
   Jimmy amazed the doctors, when at the age of two and a half years he began to walk unaided. At first, when he tried to stop, he would fall, so the doctors at Children's Hospital in Virginia prescribed a quad cane for him to use. We knew his accomplishments were just beginning when he would walk across the yard with that cane slung over his shoulder like a soldier's rifle, learning to stop on his own in just a few short months.
   
   When Jimmy was four, he attended a private nursery school in our neighborhood. The following year, he began kindergarten in the public schools in our southern West Virginia hometown of Welch. It was also during these early years that we began to notice a pronounced curvature of his spine (scoliosis) developing. Our local pediatrician made an orthopedic referral to Duke University's Myelo Clinic, and at age seven, Jimmy's medical complications from spina bifida escalated.
   
   During Jimmy's first visit to Duke, the neurosurgeon was appalled that he did not have a working shunt. After the appropriate x-rays, which showed enlarged ventricles, a second shunt was the first order of business. Then, following CT scans, MRI's, and myelograms, it was determined that he had a tethered cord (his spinal cord was caught in scar tissue from closure surgery), thus prompting surgery to release his cord. During this six week recuperation period, a homebound teacher was provided for his education. The following summer after his eighth birthday, he had his first spinal fusion, a growth fusion, where a rod was placed to correct what had become a sixty-eight degree curvature of the spine. For eight months following this surgery - almost his entire third grade year of school - he could not even sit up without a molded turtle shell brace (it extended from armpits to hips and the front and back of the brace hooked together with velcro).
   
   The rod was removed the following summer and within one year, the curvature was back to sixty degrees, which resulted in his second, permanent fusion (he has one rod called an Isola instrumentation) of ten thoracic vertebra.
   
   But, despite the medical "life," Jimmy persevered. When he was six, he played on a T-ball team. Because of the wonderful small town we live in and the caring people who live here, every time Jimmy was at bat he was always safe on first, and that one memorable evening, he traveled completely around the bases and scored! There probably wasn't a dry eye at the Little League field that night and every person there gave him a standing ovation.
   
   He remained an honor roll student throughout elementary school, participated in the marching band as a drummer (using a wheelchair for distances, like parades), and at the end of his sixth grade year, he was chosen the boy Good Citizen of Welch Elementary by our local American Legion.
   
   Middle school years were more difficult. The school was on a hill and the buildings were too old for an elevator, so Jimmy was confined to only one floor and programs were brought to him. During these two years, he also needed two new shunts placed, and the neurosurgeon, during the last surgery in April, 1998, did an endoscopic third ventriculostomy, which was placing a hole in the third ventricle to allow for additional drainage. At this time, the procedure was not being done at many hospitals, so Jimmy likes to think of himself as being on the cutting edge of medical technology. During these two years, he was a member of the Junior Beta Club (a middle school honor society) and represented his school at the county spelling bee. He also had a major role in several plays written by a local author and performed in churches and schools in the county.
   
   When I think back to that day in 1984 when Jimmy entered our lives, I can remember that the doctors told us he would never walk, but he did; I remember they told us he would never be continent (control of bowel and bladder), but he is; I remember they told us he might be mentally impaired (because of hydrocephalus), but he is far from it; I remember they told us if we chose surgery to close his back, it needed to be done within twenty-four hours or that we could choose no surgery. I thank God everyday that we chose the aggressive, surgical closure of his back. Since that time, he's probably had fifteen or more surgeries. Following his last surgery on his leg and ankle, walking has become more difficult and he now uses his wheelchair most of the time.
   
   Jimmy faces life with a smile. He's an easy-going, compassionate, and friendly human being. He touches the lives of almost everyone he knows because of his brave determination to meet the challenges of everyday life. His strong faith and reliance on God helps him, not only during his times of crisis, but in his everyday life. He realized early in life that things may be difficult, but that life is good and worth the fight; that he controls his quality of life. He has set many goals for himself, many of which he has already achieved.

3. 3. UnionDemocrat.com - The Union Democrat Online

   home.uniondemocrat.com/news/st - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/9/2006   Last Visited: 6/10/2006

   James Crouse, 18, the student with the fresh tattoo, is relieved to have 13 years of schooling under his belt, he said.