six-year-old Shaun Doss, who was paralyzed in a car accident, poses with his parents Robert and Michelle and 3-month-old brother, Brayden at his home in San Tan Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/East Valley Tribune, Thomas Boggan)
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Six-year-old Shaun Doss lost the use of his legs when a red-light runner going nearly 50 mph T-boned his family’s truck in south Chandler in 2007.
Shaun’s father, Robert, and mother, Michelle, believe there is a controversial, $50,000 stem-cell procedure that can restore some feeling to his legs, perhaps even allow him to walk again. And they’re planning to spend a month in Costa Rica to get it.
“We’re taking Spanish classes,” Robert said.
The family learned about the procedure from another patient at Spine and Orthotics Physical Therapy in Queen Creek, where Shaun — a first-grader on the honor roll at Walker Butte Elementary School — is a patient. Michelle said a 30-year-old woman with a similar spinal injury had amazing results from the treatment.
“Now she can feel if somebody grazes their hand across her leg,” she said.
The treatment does not use fetal stem cells, but those from Shaun’s own body, from an umbilical cord or from a matching donor, Robert said.
Jeff Carr, a physical therapist at Spine and Orthotics, said the woman previously had no feeling in her legs.
“It’s growing. The area is spreading where she can feel,” Carr said.
The Dosses had been relying upon the hope that a class-action lawsuit against Chrysler in federal District Court in New York would produce a judgment that would pay for the procedure, which is not available in the United States, Robert said. But last spring, the company declared bankruptcy, throwing the lawsuit’s future into doubt.
The lawsuit claims that seat belts in the rear of some Chrysler vehicles were faulty, and that Shaun’s spinal injury was caused by the failure of a shoulder belt in the Doss’ 2006 Dodge Durango to lock during the collision, while the lap belt held him in place.
“He has a stretch injury to the spine,” Robert said. “If they wouldn’t have had the bankruptcy, we wouldn’t have to have donations.”
The family is hoping to get the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, he said. They’re also suing Earnhardt Dodge, who sold them the truck, but the case hasn’t yet gone to trial.
Michelle said the driver who hit them had minimal insurance and no assets of which to speak.
“Nothing happened to her. She got a slap on the wrist,” she said.
Shaun’s bills to date at Maricopa Medical Center have totaled about $1.8 million, including surgeries to remove his spleen, appendix, a portion of his intestines, and to repair his lung, Robert said. Robert himself received neck and shoulder injuries in the crash. Shaun’s brother Anthony, 8, suffered a torn aorta and concussion but is recovered now.
“It was not a fun day,” Robert said.
The couple have three other children, daughters Keilani, 9, and Bella, 3, and son Braydon, 3 months.
Robert said his insurance requires that he pay 20 percent of the cost, and it’s unclear from where that money will come. The 30-year-old recently graduated golf professional said he has been relying on the GI Bill benefits he earned as a former Army counterintelligence agent.
The family had been renting a house in Chandler but was forced to move to San Tan Valley in Pinal County after the landlord allowed the home to be foreclosed. The home they are renting now also faces foreclosure, despite the landlord’s previous assurances of financial stability, Robert said.
“We’ve got to find some place to go,” he said.
The Dosses plan to leave for Costa Rica on May 28 and will receive a reduced rate from a Marriott hotel in the country’s capital of San Jose, he said. The Cell Medicine Clinic where Shaun will receive treatment is about two blocks away.
Michelle said the departure date is soon after Shaun’s birthday on May 24 and his last day of school on May 26.
So far, the family has raised about $3,500. Robert has organized a charity golf tournament on March 14 at the Tournament Players Club Champion Course in Scottsdale to help raise the rest of the money. Each participant is asked to donate $185. There are 40 people, including local golf pros, signed up right now, and the family would like to register 60 more.
Sponsors to date include the Matthew Cunningham Law Firm, the Phoenix Coyotes, Gator Garb, and teetimeblast.com, Robert said.
“Mercedes is donating a car for a hole-in-one,” he said.
ARI COHN,East Valley Tribune
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press
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