Jacob is 19 Years old this year. He dropped out of West Aurora High School in Aurora. Jacob used to wrestle.

Visit Jacob's 7th Grade Wrestling page HERE. Visit Jacob's 8th Grade Wrestling page HERE.

JACOB'S BACKGROUND

In 2004 he was diagnosed with Perthes Disease.  This hip problem causes pain and limping in children. Perthes is apparently the result of a temporary loss of the blood supply to the ball of the hip joint. The loss of nourishment leads to the death of the femoral head, and its eventual collapse and flattening. This, in turn, leads to pain and stiffness. The reason blood supply to the head of the femur is lost remains under investigation.

Jacob's Story is Below:

In August of 2004 Jacob had been complaining of pain when he walked.  His Brothers and Sisters and father were all Downtown Chicago for the Venetian Night festival. We were running back to the train when Jacob Collapsed in pain. I had to carry him back the the train about 4 blocks. The next day we took him to the doctor where he was diagnosed with Perthes Disease.

On Nov. 11, 2004 at 9AM Jacob underwent surgery to correct this condition. This consisted of the application of a Petrie Cast. A Petrie Cast is a cast on both legs, from thigh to ankle, with bars in between to keep the legs spread apart. These will be left on for 6 weeks. The cast was applied at Edward Hospital in Naperville, IL in the outpatient operating room under anesthesia. He had a fluoroscopic (real-time x-ray) examination of the hip. X-ray contrast dye was placed in the hip joint via a needle to outline the non-calcified portions of the ball and socket (a hip arthrogram). This will aid in planning future treatment. By 11:30AM the same day he was home on the couch recovering.

11/12/04 - Jacob has learned how to move around the house under his own power. He can move off of the couch and onto his wheel chair,  then wheel himself to the bathroom. The only problem is he can't fit through the door and still needs help. Were working on that.

12/12/2004 - Jacob would like to thank all the people that have sent him gifts, cards, donations, and well wishes. It's only 3 more days till he gets the cast off. This procedure will be done at the doctors office on 12/15/2004 at 8:30 AM. He can hardly wait. He really longs to take a nice long hot bath and wants to be able to bend his legs.

12/18/04 - Jacob had his cast removed on Wed and it was a success. He must now learn to walk normal again Pictures are below.

 12/26/2004 - Jacob had a good Christmas. he received many gifts that he is now enjoying. He received 102 Piece Mechanics tool set (he loves to work on bikes) and a 10 Piece Craftsman Screwdriver set. One large tool box, one Formula Fueler Racecar, several XBOX games, baseball glove and ball, American Chopper Book and many items of clothes.

On Tuesday Dec 28, 2004 at 5AM Jacob will report to Edward Hospital for his real surgery. The doctor will be applying either pins or screws to Jacobs hip to correct his condition.  The surgery will hopefully be over by 9AM and will require Jacob to spend one to two nights in the hospital.

12/28/2004 - We arrived at Edward Hospital at 5:30AM for processing. Jacob had his surgery at 7:00 this morning and it was finished 2 ½ hours later with an hour in recovery.  The doctor turned the hip socket and put in 2 long pins. He also did some shaping of the femur head to keep it contained in the confines of the hip socket. He then cut into the groin, ouch, to lengthen contracted muscles. These “treatments” do not speed healing time, but, may improve the long-term outlook with Perthes. This procedure of cutting into the groin muscle means that Jacob did not really need to wear the Perthes Cast for 5 1/2 weeks but we won't tell him that. By 10:30AM we were with Jacob in the pediatrics unit.  His mother and father were with him all day until his mother left at 3PM. His grandmother and Brother Chris stopped by at 12PM  Grandma left around 2PM and Returned with Grandpa around 6:30PM  By late afternoon he was sitting up in bed and watching cartoons. After supper, he did have a Morphine drip added to his I.V. because we (his grandmother) could see that he was in pain, but, was afraid of getting a shot so he wasn’t asking. That little face can really tell you so much. Tomorrow he will learn how to use crutches as he is not to put any weight on his left leg for 6 weeks. That’s a really big task for a seven year old. Depending on the pain he is in he may go home late Wednesday or Thursday.

   His mother returned at 8PM and will be spending the night. His father left at 8PM to return home to attend to his brother Chris. His Grandparents left around 9PM. Jacobs two sisters are spending a few days with their Uncle Mark, Angela and Bree at their house. 

1/16/2005 - Jacob is getting around the house on his crutches quite nicely. He is even able to go down to the basement to his bedroom (He has been sleeping on the couch in the living room for months.) He even has had time to start working on his bike projects of assembling bikes from spare bike parts he acquires from around the neighborhood. On Tuesday Jan 18, 2005 Jacob will be attending Greenman Elementary School in Aurora he will be transferring from Nicholson Elementary School because Freeman was moved to it's new building the beginning of the 2004 school year.

2/10/2005 - Jacob's visit to his orthopedic doctor went fairly well. He can discontinue the use of his wheelchair and crutches for now. He is permitted to put his weight on both legs and he must do some stretching exercises. The area where a wedge of bone was removed is healing nicely and the pins are no longer of any use. They must be removed sometime this year. The ball of the femoral head is still flatted out and blood has not yet returned to nourish this part of the bone yet. so once again we watch, wait and pray for his body to heal itself. Jake is allowed to ride his bike if he doesn't do jumps, so he's happier. Thank you for all your continued prayers for Jake.

11/10/2005 - Today Jacob finally had the surgery to remove the pins that were surgically implanted Dec 28, 2004. We arrived at Edward Hospital at 8:30 AM for processing. Jacob had his surgery at about 11AM and it was finished at about 11:45 AM after an hour of recovery, a cherry popsicle, a can of Sierra Mist and a few episodes of throwing up Jacob was ready to return home. He spent the rest of the day recovering on the couch. The doctor has cleared Jacob for normal activities as soon as he feels up to it.  His hip seems to be moving well and seems to have come back to life fairly nicely. So now hopefully he will need his hip replacement at 65 and not 40.

11/10/2005 - I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and donations. They were a big help. Thanks and God Bless - Steve Kraft  - PS more updates as needed.

12/26/2005 - Jacob gets around like he never had a problem. He walks normal. Last week Jacob and I were at one of Christopher's wrestling meets at West Aurora and we were in the blue field house, after the meet was over and the place was empting out, I had him run across the entire field house and could not tell that 2 months ago he had 2 pins in his hip. 

12/10/2006 - Jacob has been doing ok over the last year. The only thing he needs to watch is over exerting himself when playing. If he does so the next day he is so stiff that he has missed school because he can barely move.

12/22/2007 - There is nothing new to report from the last year. Jacob is doing fine. He was making money over the summer with his grass cutting business. Now that is has started snowing here in the Chicago Area Jacob will attempt making money shoveling snow from neighborhood driveways.  MERRY CHRISTMAS

9/07/2009 - All is well with Jacob. He is having no troubles with hip hip. He just needs to keep his nose clean and stay out of trouble.

10/22/2009 - Jacob passed his sports physical and has been cleared to wrestle Good Luck Jacob.

9/18/2015 - LATEST UPDATE - Jacob is working for himself fixing vehicles and doing other Misc things and just being a young adult and still living at home.

If you would like to make a donation to my Medical Expense Fund Please do so below.