Last weekend, Kendall suffered a stroke due to a blood clot that had
traveled to his brain. The stroke left him with partial blindness in one
eye, and without the ability to read. Until that point, Kendall was
still in the ICU recovering from his artificial heart transplant. His
was growing stronger and continued to have a nice, healthy, sarcastic
attitude about the whole thing.
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Even after the stroke, it appears that not much has changed. “I went to see him and he is already reading sentences,” Weiser commented only a few days after the occurrence. “It was a set back, but we are moving forward again.”
Yet while the family remains strong, and have warm smiles in every photo with Kendall; their finances are not having such an easy time. “He will continue to need heart transplants every 10-15 years,” Weiser wrote in an email. “In addition [to] his anti-rejection medication, copays are outrageous.”
Once he receives a real heart, “he will also be taking approx. 14 pills a day, which are extremely expensive, so his body won't reject the new heart,” she wrote on Kendall's Facebook page.
To help with expenses, the family has set up a donations page and will have a fancy auction at Mixology in Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 21. Oddly, and fantastically enough, the family has Mario Lopez and Maria Menounos to thank for setting up the auction. The two celebrities will host the event and auction off things like a signed Lakers b-ball, shopping sprees, and vacations. A ticket to the event will cost you $100 (tax-deductible), and you may purchase them until Feb. 14 on the Children's Organ Transplant Association website.
For now, Zeke has learned to use the “Freedom Driver,” a backpack that carries all the tubes and machines that he needs to keep the heart pumping and stay alive. Once his parents and the local police and firemen are trained on how to work the devices, then Zeke can rest at home until his new heart arrives.
“He is a fighter!” Weiser writes, and everybody at the Weekly is continuing to root for Zeke.
UPDATE, JAN. 28, 10:00 P.M. One week ago a new heart finally came for Zeke Kendall. After almost two months of being in the hospital, one artificial heart, and one stroke later – Zeke will finally be able to go home.
