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Greetings My Friends
If one were to set out looking for the more beautiful side of life, even the lighter, less painful side of dibilitating illness, no matter how long the journey, the joy awaiting is well worth the effort.
The main ingrediants of this story are, a very ill child, a very loving family and an organization of people who go far beyond the realm of life that most of us are familiar with. Please share this story with someone you care about.
Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt
RICK RUNION/THE LEDGER
Travis Tyler, center, of Polk City, requires 24-hour nursing care to manage his breathing after coming down with viral pneumonia in January. His mother, Victoria Montoya, right, and sister, Vanessa Tyler, help to take care of him, but Montoya has had to sideline her business since he got sick.
TO CONTRIBUTE
This holiday appeal marks the 37th year of The Ledger's Newspaper with a Heart campaign. The Ledger pays all administrative costs. Gifts are tax deductible.
Checks must be made payable to Newspaper with a Heart. They may be sent to P.O. Box 408, Lakeland, FL 33802.
TO APPLY FOR HELP
All applications for Newspaper with a Heart are initially processed by United Way of Central Florida's Information and Referral Service. Applicants need to have available such personal information as Social Security numbers, salary pay stubs and other documentation supporting needs.
To apply, call 863-648-1515 or 800-881-8929 weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Newspaper with a Heart's registration number with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is CH12293.
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Published Tuesday, November 22, 2005
NEWSPAPER WITH A HEART
Boy With Autism and Down Syndrome Fights Serious Illness
By Eric Pera
The Ledger
POLK CITY
Raising Travis Tyler has been a challenge, but one that his mother, Victoria Montoya, never shied from. Travis, 14, has Down syndrome and is autistic. He can be funny and playful one minute, and solemn, even angry, the next.
He greets strangers with a smile and a firm handshake, but sometimes meeting new faces taxes his abilities and he withdraws.
"He communicates some, but he's very easily overstimulated," said Montoya, 50, who also has a daughter, Vanessa, 16.
"He can be a very silly little boy, he laughs, he's funny," the single mother said.
Montoya said her marriage came apart over what was in Travis' best interests.
"We disagreed how to raise him," she said of her ex-husband, whom she married 1991 and divorced two years later. "He wanted him in an institution; I wanted him home with me."
Montoya, a former actress whose resume includes hundreds of commercials and walk-on roles for television shows like "Miami Vice," was left alone to raise her children.
She does receive child support for her son -- $75 a month -- which supplements his Social Security benefit of slightly more than $160 a month.
But with a child like Travis, health is always an issue. While the disorder causes mild to severe developmental delays, it can cause a variety of health problems.
In January, after a case of flu, Travis contracted viral pneumonia and was hospitalized for eight days at Lakeland Regional Medical Center.
But his health continued downhill, and in March, his lungs collapsed.
Hospitalized for more than three months, Travis finally is on the mend, although he requires 24-hour nursing to manage his breathing through a tracheal tube.
Throughout her son's medical emergency, Montoya had to sideline her business of managing permitting and other services related to home construction.
That loss of earnings prompted her request for assistance with household expenses through The Ledger's Newspaper with a Heart program.
Now in its 37th year, the program gives direct assistance to people who have fallen on hard times by way of illness, injury or loss of job.
Families featured in Ledger articles are but a fraction of those who receive help through contributions made to the Heart fund.
The Ledger pays for all administrative costs, so that every dollar goes to serve the people in need.
Each case is screened by United Way's Information and Referral Service, then pored over by a committee of social services experts representing Catholic Charities, Lake Wales Care Center, the Salvation Army and others.
Montoya's household now includes a nurse, who is qualified to keep watch over her son's oxygen machine and the breathing tube in his neck, which must be cleaned and changed regularly.
The nurse, who is paid through Medicaid, also follows Travis to school at the Karen Siegel Academy in Lake Alfred, which works with the developmentally disabled.
But there's a shortage of in-home nursing care, so Montoya and her daughter, who have received some medical training, often are alone to watch Travis on weekends.
The job is complicated by Travis' autism.
"His psychiatrist described it to me; he's afraid of everything," Montoya said. "They live in a world of complete terror, and only when things are completely familiar can he relax."
But it would be much more difficult without help from her daughter, Vanessa.
"You have to have pounds and pounds of patience," Montoya said. "People ask, `How do you do it?' It's normal to us."
Eric Pera can be reached at eric.pera@theledger.com or 863-802-7528.
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