‘He really just deserved better;’ GoFundMe started for North Carolina boy in hospice care

By Taylor Thompson

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    HENDERSON COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — At just 13 years old, a Henderson County boy, Karson, is currently in hospice care due to heart failure.

His great aunt, Dawn Hughes, has cared for him for almost eight years now, and she said this will likely be his last Christmas.

As Dawn shared with News 13, when Karson was just 11 months old, he experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) when he was kicked in the back of the head by his stepdad, which caused his brain to shift to the right. He developed Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS), which is a seizure disorder and severe form of epilepsy characterized by multiple seizures.

Now, after Karson, who has suffered with seizures since his TBI, had an extreme seizure during the summer that drastically changed his day-to-day needs, Dawn’s family and friends are hoping to spread the word throughout the community to gain support for Dawn as she supports Karson in his final days and weeks of life.

A GoFundMe page where the public can donate was created Nov. 26, just after Thanksgiving, to help Dawn stay afloat financially while caring for Karson.

A child who loves everything about Christmas, one of Karson’s final wishes was to meet Santa, and on Saturday, Dec. 3, that wish came true.

Dawn said the deadliest seizure Karson can have — and has had — is a drop seizure, which is where he falls forward and stops breathing.

“One night back in June, I walked in to give him his night meds, and he was in one of his drop seizures and he was already solid blue,” Dawn shared.

While Dawn was able to do CPR to bring Karson back, from that moment on, everything drastically changed.

She found out that in the process of having that seizure, Karson went into severe heart failure, and from that point, they had to move him into hospice care.

“They had told us at first that they didn’t know how long we would actually have with Karson,” Dawn explained.

Dawn has cared for Karson and his younger brother, Blaze, for the last 7-and-a-half years.

At this point, Dawn has to be by Karson’s side 24/7, as since the drop seizure in June, Karson has no longer been able to feed himself or speak.

It’s not the first time Dawn has experienced this kind of unimaginable heartache, as she also lost her own daughter to a heart defect when she was just four years old. Dawn said she never thought she would have to live this nightmare over again.

She does believe that through the nightmare, God has trusted her to care for Karson.

“Every moment I have right now is the most precious moment,” said Dawn.

She expressed a call for everyone with children in their life to just love their kids — as in just one moment everything can change.

“He deserved better, he just really deserved better,” she said.

Dawn has set up a Facebook page called “Prayer for Karson,” where she provides updates about Karson and where others following his journey can express their own prayers and feedback.

Anyone who would like to donate to help support Dawn while she supports Karson can visit the GoFundMe link.

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