The Charlotte area family hoping
for a miracle this Christmas
after a devastating diagnosis
for a young father of three.
But the family says they may be shut
out from their best hope for help
because of a cruel twist of fate.
WCNC reporter Michelle
Bowden has their story.
This is the story of an ordinary
family facing an extraordinary fight
and yet refusing to give up hope.
These are the things we all do,
the times we all cherish,
the memories families make every day.
Trips to the beach to Epcot,
father and son at a Clemson game.
The birth of a new baby.
That's little L Derek and
Amber Ingram's youngest.
When they brought her home to meet her
older sister Kate and brother Beau,
that was November 2021.
Earth shattering.
A day that we never,
ever want to relive.
Our youngest was three days old,
and so we took our little
newborn baby in tow.
To get literally the worst
news we could ever be given,
Amber, a school teacher, and Derek,
who worked in architecture, went to the
doctor after noticing some weird things
in the middle of baseball season,
throwing the ball in the backyard
with Bowie realized that he
could no longer close his glove.
Of this. Baseball Glove forever doing that.
Put the room and realize that against
squeeze or even that catch a ball.
It's very rare that
devastating diagnosis. Derek has ALS,
a nervous system disease that
weakens every muscle and impacts
your ability to move and talk.
The side effects can come on fast.
That's Derek at home plate coaching as Bo
gets to first base at his tee ball game.
It was just a little over a year ago.
The disease has moved very quickly.
You might come. Down there.
Or the will move by the afternoon, so we
can't move his left arm really at all.
His fingers don't move at all. Ready.
Well, I was doing can move a little.
Good Day 8. He can't hold Elle.
So this is the way he's stronger
than I am with the Virgo worm.
Neurologically, Derek is still daddy,
he says. That's the hardest part.
No.
Impossible to even think about.
Mozilla. Dog about.
At 6 bonos things are different.
He just asks lots of questions.
He wants to understand why daddy's
muscles don't work like they used to.
The day go well for being there. He
knows that Daddy is different, but he also.
Big as a bus. He's just
thankful to have a daddy who
loves him so much. Ohh our drive
to be about
as best I can. Would you like that right?
It takes Derek and Amber working
together and this poll, now fixture
in their temporary living room,
to move him from his power chair
to a lounge chair. I got you. Go.
While there is no known cure for ALS,
the couple is trying everything.
Experimental treatments,
anything that might slow the
disease or if they're really lucky,
turn back the clock and reverse
some of Derek's symptoms.
We are not going to give up hope.
We're going to continue to fight
and to do literally whatever
it takes to keep him here.
But they're running into another challenge.
Derek also has a rare bile ducts
disorder that four years ago
required a liver transplant.
I was no they expected to make
it. Incredibly, he woke up from
the surgery perfectly healthy
thanks to that new liver.
But the medication he has to take as
a transplant patient rules him out
for most clinical trials for ALS.
We need someone to say, hey,
this guy has beat the odds already
once before and we're going to
help him do it again. They're
hoping a Duke based Doctor Who has
reportedly had some luck in reversing.
Symptoms for ALS patients
will take him on. But
you refuse to give up.
We have way too much to live for.
Our kiddos are worth the fight,
and our marriage is worth the fight,
so we are determined to to win. Will
continue to celebrate all the moments we have
to just hold on to just the normal stuff.
Now don't you not ever meet those normal
little things are the big things for us.
In the meantime, the family has gone
through their savings trying to make their
home wheelchair accessible for Derek,
and they're also hoping to buy a van
that he can actually ride him without
Amber having to lift him into it.
Friends have set up a go fund me
for them if you'd like to help,
we've got all the information
you need on our website,
wcnc.com back to you.