Parents of a brain-damaged child ask for their community’s help.

When Justin Ross-Vaden was born a year ago with severe brain damage, doctors predicted he wouldn’t make it home from the hospital, let alone survive his first birthday.

Scans of his brain showed vast areas of nothingness, and it was assumed that Justin had suffered from hundreds of strokes in utero.

The baby was given high doses of phenobarbital to quiet his ongoing seizures, and his devastated Bainbridge Island parents brought him home from the hospital, expecting the worst.

“He was heavily sedated, and we were told he would have to stay like that until he died,” said his mother, Kirshner Ross-Vaden. “We went from doctor to doctor,” all of whom confirmed the baby’s fate.”

But Justin did not die.

Despite the damage to his brain, he began to suckle and eat on his own. At the suggestion of other parents of children with similar challenges, the family sought out alternative treatments for their son, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy and vasodilation to increase blood flow to his brain cells.

The child’s neurologist in Seattle scoffed at these efforts, Kirshner said.

“But there was an immediate change,” his mother said. “For the first time, he looked at my face for a good 10 minutes…At six months, he was seizure-free and I was able to wean him off the phenobarbital. His brain continues to deteriorate, but his cognitive function appears normal.

“He says ‘Momma,’ and he knows his dad, his grandma, and his brother (Brandon, age 4). He knows 22 commands. He is starting to see. He loves music.”

But the alternative therapies, which required months of travel to specialists in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, are not covered by the family’s insurance policy.

And now they are broke.

While the couple lives in a magnificent north-end home, they have spent more than $75,000 this past year for Justin’s medical bills and therapy, which has wiped out their savings and the equity in their house. Their credit cards are maxed.

“We live paycheck to paycheck,” said Kirshner, a registered nurse who served as a medic in the Air Force.

She stays home with the children while her husband Lyle Vaden works as a computer engineer for Clearsight Systems in Seattle.

“We’re really stuck in a hard place, because we make too much money to qualify for assistance, but we don’t have enough to pay the bills,” Kirshner said. “And Justin is not ‘sick’ enough to qualify for respite care, because he is not on a ventilator or feeding tube.”

Friends on Bainbridge Island are helping the family raise funds for Justin’s care with a massive rummage sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 16, at the family’s home at 9562 Mary Sam Lane off North Madison Avenue. Donations are currently being accepted at Hazel Creek Montessori, the family home, and at Salamander Station in Poulsbo, a children’s store the family owns.

Truckloads of items have already been donated for the sale, and Kirshner and her friends have been sorting and organizing items for weeks. Anyone interested in making donations to Justin’s cause can call 780-4456, or see www.all4JustinLee.com.

The family’s goal is to raise $30,000 to continue therapy during the youngster’s second year.

“We chose a very different track for Justin’s care, because traditional medicine offered nothing but sedation and death for him,” his mother said. “I don’t have delusions that Justin will ever be normal. But I want him to be free of seizures, to be healthy, and to be able to experience joy as long as he is alive, whether that’s two years or 20 years.”

The child’s health suffered a setback on Easter, when he was once-again wracked by seizures after being free of them for about six months. He is back on phenobarbital for the time being, and his mother worries.

“We are hoping that it’s just a growth spurt which has caused the seizures,” she said.

But she knows that massive seizures sometimes end the lives of brain-damaged children, as do secondary infections and respiratory problems. A 2-year-old with brain damage that the family befriended died Monday morning; the child’s condition was similar to Justin’s.

“If Justin is taken out by a massive seizure or some other event, well at least he didn’t live most of his life drugged like this,” his mother said, as she cradled her son in her arms.

The family recently purchased a hyperbaric chamber for their home, so they won’t have to travel for treatment. In the long run, it’s a cheaper way for them to provide the therapy for Justin, his mother said, saying that she and her son climb into the tank several times a week for a nap.

They also make the tank available to brain-damaged children from other families, some of whom have come from as far away as Michigan to use it for several weeks at a time. The Ross-Vader family puts the visitors up while they use the chamber.

“All we ask is that they make a donation to Justin’s fund,” Kirshner said. “We do this because it’s the right thing to do. Many parents don’t have the means for this therapy.”

Neither did her family, but that did not stop them.

“What was I to do? Just let him die?” Kirshner asked. “That doesn’t work for me. That’s not who I am. I can’t sit around and watch him die. No one can predict Justin’s future.

“He’s already come so far.”