Community rallies around Knight & McKee
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The Chrisman community and those connected have rallied together to help the families of two of their residents.
On January 10th, Reese Knight, daughter of Lesley and Jason Knight, was admitted into Riley Children’s Hospital. Reese has many different types of chronic diseases that affect her daily life. Diagnosed with Cerebral Palspy and Hirschsprung’s Diseases, the six year old has been in and out of the hospital and has gone through multiple surgeries.
In 2022, Reese underwent multiple surgeries to help improve her walking and movement at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where she still gets treatment for cerebral palsy.
A little more than a week ago, Reese began not feeling well, getting sick, stomach distended and fevers. The always happy child was not herself. It’s something that happens every so often and causes her to be hospitalized, but this time progress wasn’t being made like the doctors normally see.
After many tests, possible diagnoses were ruled out and she was being treated for enterocolitis, inflammation of the intestines. Reese was in a lot of pain, experiencing swelling in her feet, legs, face and having chest pains.
With the swelling and chest pains something that hadn’t been dealt with before, Reese was given a strong pain medication to make her comfortable.
On January 17th, her stomach pain had improved, but was still swollen.
After being in the hospital for nine days, Reese was able to go home on January 19th. She has a long road of recovery ahead for her, but was taken home with new medicine. She will also have to use her walker now until she’s able to regain her strength.
For the week of January 23rd, the Chrisman Elementary School hosted the ‘Miss Reese Coin Drive’. Students were able to bring in any type of coins, even dollar bills to the collection container in their classrooms to help the family pay for the hospital stay.
On January 24th, the students wore red, Reese’s favorite color and later in the week on Thursday, they wore plaid, another of Reese’s favorites. If you would like to donate, go to gofundme.com and search for ‘Rally around Reese and her family’.
On January 17th, Chrisman graduate, Kile McKee was a passenger in a vehicle that was involved in a serious traffic crash and suffered life threatening injuries as a result.
McKee is undergoing intensive treatment in Urbana, Illinois with his wife, Olivia, and family by his side. McKee is facing an extremely challenging, but achievable recovery.
Kile is well known in the Chrisman community where he works for Farm Credit Illinois and farms with his family. He also has a large network of friends from his time at Purdue University and Farmhouse Fraternity.
On January 22nd, Kile was able to get his tube taken out and talk to his family for the first time since the accident.
If you would like to help the McKee family, go to gofundme.com and search ‘Kile McKee and Family Medical Support Fund’.
