Monticello Live

A Drew Central baseball player, Gavin Wear, is losing his eye sight to a genetic disorder, his mutation is rare with only 6% with his condition having their eye sight affected.

His only chance for treatment and to regain some of his eye sight and potentially get back on the field is to travel to the Fedorov Restore Vision Clinic in Berlin, Germany.

According to Gavin’s mother, Allison Wear, Gavin first complained of his eye sight in June of 2020 after baseball practice. “He was at baseball practice saying he needed to go see the eye doctor,” said Allison Wear, Gavin’s mom. “That he couldn’t see the ball.” It was then Allison took him to different doctors, where he was diagnosed with an astigmatism and floaters. They ordered Gavin glasses for driving and contacts for Baseball.
Then he came in one evening after work, pretty much pleading with me to tell him the glasses were going to make the black spot go away and the more and more I talked to him I realized he wasn’t talking about a floater.”

As a nurse, Allison was alarmed at what Gavin had said. What he was describing is also a sign of a brain tumor.

Gavin had blind spots in his direct vision and his peripheral vision was beginning to suffer also. An MRI revealed there was no tumor. During a specialist visit in Louisiana, a pharmaceutical company was offering free genetic testing. While the specialists all agreed Gavin most likely had Leber’s, she also suggested they go ahead an do the genetic testing, it was free, after all. The results were shocking.

“While we were waiting on the Leber’s test it came back positive for the Charcot-Marie Tooth Disease is with his mutation MFN2,”

According to Allison, this ended up being a positive, with Leber’s, a patient does not recover any of their eyesight, they go blind. But it was during this time that Allison found out how rare Gavin’s particular case was.

Allison explained, “Charcot-Marie is not rare, it happens to people. It is his mutation that is rare and effects his eyes. The research she had very few people, 60% of them gain their vision back within 3 to 5 years. So that was promising to me.”

Gavin’s Leber’s test came back negative. The cause of the loss of eye sight was Charcot-Marie Tooth Disease with a MFN2 mutation. While this was promising compared to the Leber’s diagnosis and no chance of recovering his sight, the rare condition can only be treated at the Fedorov Restore Vision Clinic in Berlin Germany. Treatment that has a chance of giving Gavin back some of his eyesight and possibly getting him back to playing baseball, which he has done all his life.

Medical bills aren’t cheap, trips to Germany aren’t cheap either. As a result, the community has pulled together to support Gavin and his family as they jump through all he hoops necessary to travel out of country during the pandemic and to get Gavin the medical attention he needs. Planned fundraising events and other ways to donate are:
Hell or High Water Outdoors Raffle
5 man/ 2 day Specklebelly Goose Hunt in NE Arkansas (21-22 season) with JR Borchelt and Waterfowl Assassins Guide Service ($2,000.00 value)
$10/ticket
Getting Gavin to Berlin Auction on Facebook
February 21-24th
Donation items/services to be given to Janelle Harris by February 19th
100 Plates for Gavin’ BBQ Fundraiser and 100 plates for Gavin Fried Chicken Fundraiser have been modified and combined due to inclement weather.
Friday, Feb. 26, at 11 a.m. at Wallis’s BBQ Blues Shack, Monticello $10 BBQ plate with pulled pork bbq sandwich, potato chips, dessert, and drink will be served through lunch or are sold out.
At 5 p.m. 100 Plates for Gavin Fried Chicken Fundraiser will begin for dinner and will feature $10 BBQ plate  with fried chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, and drink and will continue until all plates are sold.
Pig Out for Gavin Wear / Boston Butt Fundraiser
$35/each – contact information on Allison Wear’s Facebook page
Order by Monday, March 1st
$50 Bath and Body Works Raffle
$2/ticket – notify Allison Wear for tickets
Drawing on March 1st
Devlyn Fine Candle Fundraiser
Posted on Kayla Wear and shared on Allison Wear’s Facebook page
Bedsheet/Pillow Fundraiser
Information shared on Allison Wear’s Facebook page
Hunting Raffle – Gun and hunting supplies
Date has not been set
Donation Accounts:
Union Bank – set up under Allison Wear/reference edical Donations
Simmons Bank – set up under Allison Wear/reference Donations for Gavin Wear
Paypal – paypal.me/ALLISONWEAR
GoFundMe – https://gofund.me/1f5b177a
J.D. Nations and Hell or High Water Outdoors Facebook Fundraiser (Gavin Wear treatment cost)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2021 at 12:45 am and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.