Each year, hundreds of families from Memphis — and some from across the United States — turn to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital for specialized care of their kids.

Tonight, in this Go Jim Go Le Bonheur Patient Profile, WREG’s Alex Coleman introduces upi to 9-year-old Jack Chance and tells us how your donations and gifts make a difference for Le Bonheur patients like him.

“We are a family of six. We have four boys and a golden retriever buddy, and we really love family time and spending time together,” said Jack’s mom, Brittany Chance. “Jack is our second oldest and he is our crazy man. The life of the family, literally.”

To look at Jack now, it’s almost hard to believe about a year ago he was in a battle of his life.        He remembers being at school the day it started.

“Yeah. And I started getting bad, bad headaches, stomach aches, started throwing up. I had this terrible ear (infection) and one night it kept me up,” he said.

They took Jack to the pediatrician for what looked like a sinus infection. He kept complaining of severe headaches, stomach aches. Things only got worse.

“That night he had lost his vision. He was seeing blurry and double vision and and then he said his neck hurt,” his mom said.

A CT scan showed Jack had a massive blood clot and his doctors said Jack needed to immediately go to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. It was an anxious time for his family.

“I thought, Oh, my gosh, Jack’s going to die like this. We’ve got this massive blood clot. And they said it was extremely fatal and we had to go straight to Le Bonheur,” his mom said.

Jack would have to undergo his first surgery to clean out an ear infection and be treated for meningitis. But a day and half later, there was a setback.

His father said, “Jack’s having a stroke. We don’t know what’s going on. And Jack’s face had drooped. He couldn’t talk. His arms and legs were numb and they said he had to have another surgery, another surgery to get rid of some of the infection.”

But the Chance family says Jack’s surgeon and a team of experts at Le Bonheur were there to reassure them that things were going to be okay.

“It’s God,” Brittany said. “God guided every doctor and every nurse into our path for a reason.”

But Jack’s medical odyssey wasn’t over quite yet. Aside from dealing with meningitis, he had developed hydrocephalus, and there was a possibility he could go blind.

“The ophthalmologist was very concerned about him perhaps losing his eyesight permanently,” dad Roth Chance said. “And, you know, he’s eight years old. You don’t want to hear about your kid potentially permanently losing their eyesight.”

But that surgery did the trick — Jack could see again and the family’s prayers were answered.

Brittany and Roth call Le Bonheur’s surgery lifesaving and his care exceptional.

“I don’t know what what words could express the gratitude that I would have for these people (Le Bonheur),” his dad said.