Joy Tristano jokes that her 8-year-old son, Matt, was a $3 million baby. But it’s true.
Matt was born three months prematurely, weighing 1 pound 11 ounces. Sadly, he contracted several infections, including spinal meningitis, which caused hydrocephalus, a condition marked by high levels of cerebral spinal fluid on the brain.
“We were told he’d be a vegetable and wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t walk,” Tristano says.
Matt spent the first eight and a half months of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). “He had so many surgeries before he left,” she says. “He was a mess.”
She took eight years away from her teaching job to take Matt to doctor’s appointments, while her husband, Nick, an Elmwood Park community service officer, worked.
Doctors warned them hydrocephalus could be hereditary. Not wanting to put another child through Matt’s ordeal, the Tristanos adopted the three biological siblings they were fostering through the Department of Children and Family Services; 5-year-old twins Grace and Carrie and 4-year-old Molly.
Matt, who will always require medical care, is now a “walking, talking second-grader, who is hysterical,” Tristano says. With the addition of three “fabulous” little girls, their family is complete.
Slowly, they chip away at Matt’s enormous NICU bills.
“We’re both working,” says Tristano, who finally returned to teaching. “But it’s difficult to make ends meet, much less pay for extra medical bills and therapies.”
On March 12, that will change, when the Cameron Can Foundation pays off the Tristano family’s hospital bill at its fifth annual “Gimme Five–Cameron Rocks On!” fundraiser. Matt is this year’s primary grant recipient.
Riverside-based Cameron Can Foundation provides financial assistance to families of children with neurological conditions whose income disqualifies them from receiving charity from the government and healthcare providers. Since 2010, the organization has raised $350,000 and helped 10 children pay for medical treatment, adaptive bicycles, technology and various necessities not always covered by insurance. It also donates to not-for-profits working to cure hydrocephalus.
“I know what it feels like to have all that pressure,” says Cameron Can founder Rory Dominick. She launched the not-for-profit to pay it forward; her son Cameron was born with hydrocephalus and friends held a fundraiser for him.
“Gimme Five—Cameron Rocks On!” features cocktails, appetizers, entertainment and a silent auction. The event is scheduled for Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 p.m., and will be held at Fulton Market Kitchen, 311 N. Sangamon St., Chicago. Tickets are $125 in advance online; $150 at the door.
