‘We really need to do something so that he’s protected’

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Published on Thursday, November 10, 2016

By Tony Eu

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Griffin Bugg is an eight-year-old boy living in Minnedosa, he’s in Grade 3 at Tanner’s Crossing School. Bugg has isolated lissencephaly, a brain condition where the folds of the brain didn’t properly develop, resulting in a ‘smooth brain’, which is what lissencephaly means.

Because of his condition, Bugg is unable to walk or talk and is developmentally delayed, in addition to having several seizures every day. As Bugg continues to grow, it is becoming increasingly difficult for his family to move him around, as well as increasingly dangerous.

“This summer, [Griffin] had a bad seizure and his leg extended and pressed against the driver’s seat and broke his femur,” said Griffin’s father, Michael. “Because of that, it sort of emphasized the fact that we really need to do something so that he’s better protected,” he added.

That ‘something’ is buying a van specifically designed for individuals in wheelchairs. Not only would this van help keep Griffin safe, it would also make it significantly easier for his family to take him from place to place.

“The biggest thing is the fact that we’re able to keep him in his wheelchair,” Michael explained, “There’s plenty of clearance and room for him to be reclined if he’s weak.”

Michael continued, explaining the benefits of being able to keep Griffin in his wheelchair during car trips, saying, “The wheelchair has lateral supports that help hold him up. It also has a butterfly, which is sort of an elastic type restraint, which holds him comfortably in his chair. We can lean him back so that he’s not hanging in his car seat.”

As far as the family benefits go, Michael noted, “This makes it a lot easier for us to go to events or day to day life, when we’ve got to run around and do stuff. If we’re constantly transferring him, we often just don’t, because it’s difficult.” Explaining the current situation, he said, “What tends to happen now is one of us ends up staying in the vehicle with him, because it’s difficult to transfer him, or else one of us is staying home with him because it’s just not ideal for us to go around and do multi-stop shopping or whatever we have to do for the family.”

Having a van, which would allow the Buggs to keep Griffin in his wheelchair, would allow them to do more things as a family and allow Griffin to experience more of the world.

Unfortunately for the Buggs, wheelchair vans aren’t cheap, with a brand new van costing $80,000 or more. In addition, because of Griffin’s frequent seizures, one parent has to stay home, meaning the Bugg household is a single income family.

In an effort to gather the funds needed to buy a wheelchair van, the Buggs have reached out into the community for support. “It’s difficult for us to ask for help, but when Griffin broke his leg, we realized we had to get over our pride and be ok with asking people for help,” Michael said.

The Buggs are pursuing a number of paths in the effort to get the funding that they need. “President’s Choice Children’s Charity has generously put forward $20,000 to the project, but we have to use that by the end of the year. We’ve also had $3,000 put forward by the Cerebral Palsy Association,” Michael shared. In addition to those two groups, Michael mentioned that there are a couple other groups looking at donating funds, however they have yet to make anything final.

As well as receiving funding from organizations, the Buggs are also reaching out to the community in a number of ways. 

On Nov. 12, there will be a Sud N’ Spud event in Brandon at Houston’s. “It’s 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., tickets are $20 and a portion of that goes to us. There’s 50/50 tickets being sold at the event and there’ll be a raffle as well, on various prizes that are donated,” Michael explained.

“For the $20, you get a steak and a potato and a drink of some kind. It’s kind of a social evening,” he added.

Finally, the Bugg family is accepting donations, either through the online site, gofundme.com or through the bank for those who don’t feel comfortable using Go Fund Me, which has raised $3,500 in just over 20 days.

While the Bugg family’s goal is to raise enough to afford a new wheelchair van, they are very aware that raising $80,000 is not an easy task. “We’re just trying to raise as much as we can,” Michael remarked. “The companies that we’ve spoke to that sell these vans, they have access to used vans as well. Whatever amount we raise [by the end of November], we’ll go and get the newest van that we can, to maximize what we can do for Griffin’s safety.”

The end of November timeline is to make sure that the purchase goes through before the $20,000 from President’s Choice expires. However, if they do manage to raise more than what’s needed to purchase a brand new wheelchair van, the extra funds would go towards another project for Griffin.

“I don’t anticipate [receiving more than enough], but should it happen, the next project in line is doing a bathroom renovation, “ Michael noted, “The challenge that we have is that the bathtub we have currently is just a traditional one. So when you lower [Griffin] down in the sling, it’s not deep enough, only part of him gets covered.”

The issue present there is that Griffin’s seizures are temperature sensitive, meaning the temperature difference between the water and the air often triggers a seizure. “We’d like to have a deeper bathtub so that he can be more submersed. It’s easier to clean him and he’s less at risk of having seizures,” Michael remarked.

“[Support] has been pretty good so far,” he mentioned. “There’s still many tickets available for the event, but support is fairly wide spread,” he added.

If you’d like to support Griffin and his family, go to gofundme.com and search for ‘Griffin Bugg’, call Michael at 204-867-5200 for the information needed to donate via a bank or cheque, or head down to Houston’s on Nov. 12 for a steak and potato while supporting a good cause.