Meet Hunter West

Hunter is the most amazing, determined, resilient 19 month-old little boy that I know.  He loves to go to his “school house” a.k.a. daycare to be with his friends, splash around in the bathtub or pool, and Facetime with his Sissy’s.  He loves hearing people say his full name -Hunter James Parks West which he is very proud of.  His favorite songs are the “ABC’s”, CeCe Winan’s “Goodness of God” and practically anything Country.  In his down time, what little time that is, Hunter enjoys going on long walks with his dog, Sadie, snuggling with family and friends and living life to the fullest.  My husband and I met Hunter at Johns Hopkins Children’s Medical Center on December 12th, 2022 after contacting the Division of Family Services and offering to be a resource for him.  We learned about Hunter through a friend and they had shared that the department was struggling to place him due to his complex medical needs. Hunter came home from the hospital on December 23rd, 2022 and became forever ours on August 8th, 2023.  

To know Hunter is to love Hunter. His infectious smile and deep belly laughs have captivated our hearts and the hearts of hundreds of our family, friends and local communities.  To say that he is a miracle is an understatement.  Hunter is a living testimony of what prayer, faith, hope, and love can do to a child who was subjected to such heinous acts that almost cost him his life at only 6 weeks old.  As a survivor of shaken baby syndrome, Hunter sustained a non-accidental head injury while residing in Chincoteague, VA in October of 2022.  Hunter went unresponsive as a result of the injuries that he sustained and was found to have suffered a fractured skull, subarachnoid hemorrhages, a contusion of the right cerebral hemisphere, intracranial pressure, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, bruising of the arms and numerous rib fractures.  He was flown to John Hopkins with the expectation that he would most likely pass away while in flight.  He ended up coding a total of three times within his first week and eventually ended up staying there for the next 2 ½ months.  Despite all of this, Hunter refuses to be a victim of his circumstances, but rather a victor as his comeback has been far greater than his setbacks.   He shows us this through his unwavering strength and fight to keep going each and every day. 

In August of 2022, Hunter was born with clubbed feet.  In addition to this, his post-injury diagnosis’ include feeding difficulties, post traumatic seizure disorder, traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness, microcephaly, cystic encephalomalacia, global developmental delays, expressive and receptive speech delays, fine and gross motor delays, cortical visual impairment, ineffective airway clearance and reactive airway disease, quadriplegic cerebral palsy, torticollis, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, hypotonia, and PTSD.  Hunter has a team of over 25 medical providers and specialists and he has had approximately 100+ visits with them combined so far.  He is fed via g-tube and requires a variety of adaptive equipment to assist him every day.  As a result of his profound needs, Hunter will require ongoing care and support for the rest of his life.  Hunter participates in a variety of weekly therapies to help him regain some of the skills that his abusers robbed him of.  He receives weekly occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language therapy, feeding therapy, vision therapy, and early childhood education services as well as daily private duty nursing. Hunter has limited mobility due to his quadriplegic cerebral palsy and cortical visual impairment. He requires 100% assistance with his activities of daily living and it is unknown as to whether or not he will be able to ever walk, talk, toilet or feed himself.  Currently, Hunter has to be held, placed in his stander, put in his rocking chair or high chair or laid on a mat on the floor as he cannot sit up due to having a weak core.  Additionally, in order for Hunter to be successful in his daycare and home settings, we have had to purchase adapted toys, crayons, utensils, books, furniture and other materials to better support Hunter’s unique individualized needs.  Due to Hunter’s visual impairment and cerebral palsy he cannot play/ interact like a typical 19-month-old would.  

Happiness is Hunter.  Our lives have been made better because he is in it.  We want to give Hunter the life he deserves by affording him access to as many therapeutic interventions, modifications, accommodations and supports that can be made available to him.  A neurosurgeon said to Kenny and I early on that Hunter would be “a vegetable with a poor quality of life -but at least he has you two that actually care about him”.  Hunter is far from that.  He is strong, courageous, kind, resilient, determined, wanted, and destined to beat the odds which he has been doing ever since. 

Being selected as the beneficiary for the 2024 Tangier Classic will allow us to continue to provide Hunter a fighting chance at having the best quality of life possible and one that he most certainly deserves by offsetting some of the costs.  Former educator and public speaker, Rita Peirson, said it best, “Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”  We will forever be Hunter’s champions, but what an awesome opportunity for the community to become one for him as well.

I would like to thank the Tangier Classic Committee for their time and amazing efforts that they put forth every year in helping local children like Hunter be the best that they can be.

With gratitude,

Lauren West, Hunter’s mama