Meet Chef Emmitt! A master griller and one kind and courageous young man.
On Friday March 22, 2024, Emmitt started having some odd symptoms starting with numbness in his leg and over the course of the next few hours, the numbness started affecting his right arm, face and mouth, and slowly he lost his peripheral vision. Within an hour of arrival at the ER in Grand Forks, Emmitt lost all vision, was completely incoherent and combative. A CT scan revealed a large mass in his brain blocking the flow of spinal fluid causing severe hydrocephalus.
After having an emergency external ventricular drain placed, he was life flighted to Sanford’s PICU in Fargo, where he was diagnosed with a craniopharyngioma. Since his diagnosis, Emmit has undergone surgeries and 30 rounds of proton beam radiation at Mayo. This tumor wreaked havoc on Emmit and has caused additional challenges like nonfunctioning hormones, diabetes insipidus, hypothyroidism and others diagnoses requiring continued treatment through medications and close monitoring.
As he deals with short term memory loss related to his diagnosis, there is one thing Emmitt remembers – all that others have done for him throughout his journey. He has faced so much in the last few months, but he continues to keep his faith and still worries more about others than himself. Please join us in praying for Emmitt and his family.