KILA — 9-year-old Maverick Bench from Kila, a small rural town outside of Kalispell, has a rare condition called Aplastic Anemia, when the body stops producing enough new blood cells.
Maverick is still fighting for his life at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado outside of Denver, now in critical condition with severe liver failure.
Mavericks' parents put out a plea to Mavericks' Army on Facebook Wednesday asking for them to reach out to the drug company that has a potentially lifesaving drug for Maverick’s condition.
Since Maverick’s second Bone Marrow Transplant in November, he has undergone a number of hardships, including contracting Adenovirus, a group of common viruses, which is causing havoc on his body due to a nonexistent immune system from his second bone marrow transplant and heavy chemotherapy.
“He’s had Adenovirus for several weeks now and we’ve tried a couple different treatments and they’ve failed, and the Adenovirus has gotten to the point where it is extremely out of control, parts of his body are starting to shut down,”said Maverick's mother Colleen.
Colleen says her family and team of doctors are asking the drug manufacturing company Chimerix for a compassionate use approval of the drug Brincidofovir for Maverick.
They believe this drug could buy the necessary time Maverick’s immune system badly needs to heal and survive.
“So his body has no way to fight this infection on its own, here in a few months when his immune system redevelops it would be able to, so we need the drug to bridge that gap and buy us some time,” said Colleen.
In a Facebook post Thursday afternoon, Mavericks' family said his team of doctors have been in contact with the drug manufacturer Chimerix and are working towards a treatment plan.
