By Zach Richter Southeast Valley Ledger

When 10-year-old Jacob Chow was faced with the choice of spending the night at a friend’s house or helping out at a carwash that the Phoenix Monsoon soccer team was holding to benefit eight-year-old Berlin Jaeger, a San Tan Valley girl with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Brittle Bones), he made the choice that any 10-year-old would.

                                             

After skipping the carwash, Jacob felt guilty and decided to see if he could persuade his school, EDUPRIZE Queen Creek, to host a fundraiser for Berlin who suffered a broken leg in 2011, an additional accident in May of 2012 and is currently dealing with a rod put in place from the break poking through the bone in her leg.

Berlin’s mother, Krishna Jaeger spoke with the Southeast Valley Ledger prior to the day of the fundraiser and explained what happened next.

“The Monsoon soccer team was awesome, the carwash raised $300, we’re very grateful for what they’ve done,” she said, noting that the community had already been very supportive of Berlin’s plight.

“The beautiful amazing son of the Monsoon’s Marketing Director was bummed he couldn’t make it to the carwash and he took it upon himself to try and help,” Jaeger continued,” He went to the dean at EDUPRIZE and got them to organize a little fundraiser.”

All told, Jacob’s fundraiser brought in a total of $2,144.59, more than all of the Jaeger’s other fundraisers combined. “I can’t believe it, is that for real,” Jaeger asked when she heard the total. “It’s just amazing; it’s awesome that someone so young is so compassionate and selfless.”

For his part, Jacob explained that he felt bad that Berlin couldn’t afford her surgery and decided to set up the fundraiser to help. “It wasn’t hard but I wanted to put in some things so that people would want to participate,” he said.

Jacob would also like to thank Mr. Green, Mrs. Fox and all the staff and students at EDUPRIZE Queen Creek and a special thank you to the National Junior Honor society and Mrs. Weiler for all of their hard work to make the event successful.

Lester Chow, Jacob’s father pointed out that the school event, titled Helping Hats raised $1,936.59 and that family and friends put in the rest.

“He’s always been that way, always looking to help other people,” Chow said proudly, “He offered to use his allowance to give the class with the highest total a pizza party.”

As for the Jaeger’s, as of press time they were headed to the Shriners’ Hospital in California in hopes that Berlin will be chosen for a pro bono operation. Krishna Jaeger, who shares Osteogenesis Imperfecta with Berlin and Berlin’s older sister, explained their plight.

“[Berlin] had an accident at school that caused compression fractures to her spine and she had to be airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Medical Center,” Jaeger recalled before explaining that the real problem was that Berlin had fractured her leg during the fall.

“She broke her leg seriously about a year and a half ago, and it hadn’t been heeling properly,” Jaeger continued. “When she fell now it ended up refracturing the part that was healing and it pushed one of the rods through the bone, you can feel it with your fingers.”

To further complicate things, Krishna, her husband who has been on disability since having brain surgery in 2005, and their children have been dropped from their government insurance which lead to Berlin being discharged shortly after she reached the hospital.

According to Jaeger, Berlin was given a splint and that plus the helicopter ride to Phoenix set the family back $23,000.

As Berlin’s condition was non-life-threatening, she wasn’t admitted to surgery then and there and the family was stuck trying to find a surgeon who would perform the surgery at a reduced cost ever since. The Jaegers thought they had it made when they were able to make it to the Shriners’ Hospital in July only to be told the doctor they were looking for was on vacation until Sept.

“It’s taken its toll on all of us,” Jaeger admitted, “ I still have hope but it’s hard to watch a child in pain, getting more and more deformed and not be able to do anything to stop it.”

Donations can be made in Berlin’s name at any Wells Fargo bank or online at Facebook.com/BerlinsSurgery.