PHOENIX — Silas Black is about to turn 4 years old. In his short little life, he’s already had to fight for his life.
“When he was born, he came out stillborn,” his mother Shyanna Black said. “They basically had to bring him back to life. He lost oxygen to his brain for 12 whole minutes.”
Thankfully doctors were able to revive Silas.
“That moment was like, my miracle baby,” Black said.
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Silas survived, but that complication caused him serious damage. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and other disorders, Black said.
Silas can’t crawl, walk, or sit on his own.
“He’s nonverbal, but he does communicate,” Black said. “Like, he’ll laugh, he’ll smile. I’ve heard him scream and yell. So, he has his own way of communicating, he shows his love in other ways.”
To help give him a comfortable life, Sila’s grandfather built him a mobile chair before he passed away. The chair lounges up and down, is on wheels, and is made of materials that can be wet so that water can go through it—perfect for Sila’s showers.
But Silas can’t sit up in it like he can in other specialized equipment made for his needs.
When he was little, he laughed and enjoyed sitting on a special needs feeding chair he used during therapy sessions. The chair was comfortable and helped improve his quality of life.
“The chair kind of props him up where he can swallow a little better because when he’s down, he can’t really breathe that well, so the chair kind of helps him, with that,” Black said. “[The chair helps] him get his posture a little better, to sit up.”
But getting a chair like that at home has been difficult because Black said, “insurance doesn’t cover it.”
She is on a tight budget, so Black resorted to creating a fundraiser to raise the several hundred dollars a new chair like that can cost.
It’s a chair that Silas can grow into and help change his life.
“It’s something that he’ll need and benefit from for a lot of years to come,” Black said. “It’s just one step getting closer to having him be better and advanced.”
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