In the summer of 2021, Andy went camping about an hour south from his home with some close friends and their family in Summerfield Township, Michigan. What was supposed to be a fun weekend of camping turned tragic as Andy somehow became submerged in a nearby lake for more than 20 minutes.
“Andy wasn’t a good swimmer because we never grew up around water,” Andy’s father, Dave Snook, told us. “The only pool he went to was my sisters, and it was only up to his chest. He could float in the water but he wasn’t a strong swimmer at all.”
When Andy didn’t come back to the surface of the water, the family Andy was camping with called 911. A local deputy with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department lived close by and heard the call on his scanner. He grabbed what he could and rushed to the scene. Incredibly, the deputy was able to find Andy in the murky waters and pull him out.
Although Andy spent a considerable amount of time underwater, the deputy was able to resuscitate Andy and get a heartbeat before being transferred to a nearby hospital.
“Andy wasn’t expected to live for 24 hours and now it’s been 100 days,” Dave told his local news. “He is going to prove all these doctors wrong…I promise you.”
After a grueling eight months in five different hospitals with his mother Heather by his side, Andy finally returned home.
“Andy has his good days and his bad days,” Dave tells us. “I feel that he knows he’s at home as he seems more relaxed now that he’s in his own environment. He definitely really likes being at home.”
Andy’s new life is no small change for the Snooks, as they’ve had to rearrange everything in their day-to-day activities to give Andy the best chance at recovery. Just the same, the financial burden of Andy’s care and therapy becomes a lot to bear when insurance doesn’t cover some of the most essential home care needs.
“If I think about the future, I tend to spiral out of control,” says Andy’s mother. “My feelings and emotions tend to get the best of me, so basically, it’s one day at a time.”
Heather and Dave, Andy’s parents, pose with their son in his new multi-use bath chair.
When the Snook family reached out to Holton’s Heroes they were in the process of being discharged from the hospital after the long, 8-month journey. They faced many challenges, including securing appropriate nursing care for their son, who now required a tracheotomy tube to breath and a gastrostomy tube to eat.
Near the top of a never-ending list of must-haves was Andy’s bathing and bowel & bladder care. Andy’s parents were rightly concerned for how their son would safely get in and out of the bathroom for all of his home care needs.
A full remodel of their home bathroom isn’t possible at this time, so an expensive shower chair system was the only solution. Insurance has not approved this costly piece of equipment in spite of Andy being home and requiring this support immediately.
“It is necessary for a patient with limited mobility to do a regular bowel program in an upright posture so that gravity may assist, and the patient will not be in danger of impaction. If a regular bowel program is not followed, a costly hospital stay could result,” Andy’s occupational therapist explains in a letter to insurance. “Additionally, if the appropriate chair is not utilized for toileting tasks, skin breakdown could occur and potentially lead to hospitalization.”
The Shower Slider System chair will allow assist with Andy’s bowel program as well as his hygiene needs.
Holton’s Heroes was able to fully fund a $6,000+ Nuprodx Shower Slider System for the Snook family so that Andy could shower, toilet and attend to all bathroom needs safely for years to come.
“This chair is going to give him some type of normalcy in his life,” Dave tells us. “The first time the shower water hit him in the chair, his eyes rolled back in his head as it must’ve felt amazing after 8 months of being bathed in his bed.”
As always, we are so grateful to our supporters, individuals and companies alike, who allow us to fund such expensive items due to their generous donations. We are only able to continue to help amazing kids like Andy with your support, so please consider donating directly to us today here.
“We are so very grateful about [Holton’s Heroes] help to be able to get our son to heal and feel better about bathing. I personally hope you will use Andy’s story to allow more people to pray for him, as all of the heroes in your organization. And most importantly, help prevent this from happening to another child. ”
Check out some of our other heroes from 2021
“Tonight, we feel the power of humanity in a bath chair. Go figure. Some people feel excited about cars and other luxuries, but here I am just wanting my boy to be bathed safely,” Joshua mom wrote to us after her son received his gift from Holton’s Heroes.