Meet Dayton Preston, who has never been able to eat, and his loving mother.
A young boy's dream trip to the US could be called off due to his high-risk health record.
Ten-year-old New Plymouth boy Dayton Preston made national headlines in July, when his family went public with the story of how he had never been able to eat food.
Since then the family's Givealittle page had raised a grand total of $18,747 so Dayton and his family could go to Universal Studios in Hollywood to meet his idol Transformer's character Optimus Prime.
Robert Charles/Fairfax NZ Dayton Preston, the boy who can't eat, is not allowed to travel to Hollywood to meet Optimus Prime because insurance companies won't cover his medical condition while overseas.
However, one week out from the deadline to purchase airplane tickets Dayton's mum Chantelle Luke is facing the possibility her son may not get his wish because they cannot find an insurance company willing to cover his travel.
"I've already been rejected from five insurance companies because of pre-existing conditions," she said.
"He's had no hospital admissions since November but they hear his medical history and get scared."
READ MORE:* The boy who can't eat food gets delivered a special Transformers package* The little boy who can't eat still dares to dream big* Boy who can't eat food has enough money to head to Hollywood
Dayton was born with heart defects that required surgeries just two weeks after he was born. During one of his early operations a vocal cord was paralysed and as a result the New Plymouth boy has been fed by a tube his whole life.
Dayton is particularly prone to pneumonia and chest infections and despite being cleared by his GP to take the trip, insurers claim Dayton was too much of a risk, Luke said.
Luke, 31, said she would move heaven and earth to make sure Dayton could get his wish, but admitted she was becoming disheartened.
"It's the first plane we would ever have been on that wasn't going to Starship," she said.
For his part Dayton had not yet let himself believe he would get to Hollywood anyway, because his experience was something would always crop up with his health that would stop him, Luke said.
The trip had been two years in the making and Luke was determined to do everything she could to make sure they touched down on American soil, they just needed an insurer to take them on, she said.
An Insurance Council of New Zealand spokesperson said insurance was a business and every case was looked at individually to determine the risk of taking it on.
Individual insurers had the right to refuse coverage for any case which they deemed too high risk, they said.
- Stuff
Source: Hollywood trip for New Plymouth boy who can't eat too risky for travel insurers
No comments:
Post a Comment