Team Jaxx keeps the faith

Team Jaxx is a common phrase these days in Rockingham County and the surrounding area.

Jaxx Denny, an eight-month-old boy living in Reidsville, had 40 people in his waiting room the day of his birth.

Famous before he was born, this little boy has impacted the lives of those who know him and the lives of those who know those people.

Denny isn’t famous for happy reasons, however. Denny was born with Thoracic Insufficiency Syndrome, a syndrome which has left the little boy with only six ribs on his right side, which aren’t fully developed and fused together. He has only one-third of his right lung and severe scoliosis, which leaves him with a crooked tilt, though as a baby this is still only noticeable if you’re looking for it. He’s missing a kidney, only has 12 hemi vertebrae in the thoracic area of his spine and recently it was discovered pedicles in his spine are missing, leaving his spinal cord floating out of place.

This discovery was made while the Denny family was readying Jaxx for the operating table in Philadelphia. It turns out the radiologist read his MRI wrong and didn’t notice Jaxx’s spinal cord was not in place, a mistake which could have had devastating results.

Jaxx’s surgery was designed to place VEPTR devices on his spine to stretch and straighten it as he grows. Having done this with his spinal cord out of place, the spinal cord would have stretched as well, which his mother Tammy Denny said would have been a huge mistake.

Tammy said this mistake was frustrating to her at first. Shortly after, she and her husband Pete realized what a blessing it was to have caught this before the surgery.

Pete and Tammy’s attitude could be what keeps the couple sane through this devastating problem and keeps people around them interested in what Jaxx is going through.

“I’ve said it a million times,” Pete said. “This is not a story about Tammy and I or a little boy getting his back fixed. God’s put him here to change a lot of people.”

Pete has witnessed this firsthand. Having started a Facebook group to keep people up to date on Jaxx’s progress, the group now boasts 1,868 friends at press time, but this number has been rapidly growing.

Pete ran into a woman at the bank who broke down crying, thanking him and saying she attended a service for Jaxx at the Denny family’s church Osborne Baptist in Eden. It was her first time back in church in five years and her family plans to continue to go.

Pete saw this three days before Jaxx was born when the family had learned of many different conditions doctors thought he would be born with and was breaking down in his driveway. His phone rang and a man from Texas was on the other line asking Pete about his landscaping business. Pete lost it on the phone when the man asked about his family, and he learned what was happening and requested to pray for Pete over the phone. Pete said he was a perfect stranger, but God gave him exactly what he needed in the right moment. The two still stay in touch and Pete to this day has no idea how he got his number.

“If that’s not divine intervention, I don’t know what is,” Pete said.

Tammy said while they were in Philadelphia learning about their son’s spinal cord, which they also learned is tethered to a nerve, their doctor was on the phone with one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons trying to see if he had time to discuss Jaxx’s surgery and if he could go ahead with it.

The secretary who answered said the neurosurgeon was sitting in his office bored, because he had no patients.

“She told us that just never happens,” Tammy said. “He’s usually backed up for months.”

He told them to not do the surgery and to bring Jaxx in the next day. There in the waiting room was a woman, whose son had a spinal injury, who stopped the Denny’s asking if they were there to see this doctor. When they said yes, she said the same doctor corrected her son’s injury and she comes back every year to say thank you, which Tammy said was exactly what they needed to hear.

The Denny family is heading to Philadelphia for a surgery on Feb. 14 for a spinal cord release. The surgery should correct the cord but could also leave Jaxx paralyzed if something goes wrong.

“He’s a world-class neurologist, but he’s also a human being,” Pete said.

Still the Dennys hold out hope and trust their doctor, who feels it will be successful.

On the 28^th the Dennys also have the VEPTR surgery, which will begin to help the scoliosis, though they have to come back every four months to adjust the VEPTRs while he is growing.

The Dennys are asking the community to pray the surgery will be moved up to the 21^st. Besides Jaxx, the Dennys also have a five-year-old daughter, Leah, and a seven-year-old son, Elijah. The surgeries will keep them up north for at least four weeks, but if the surgery isn’t moved up it will be five weeks, keeping them from their other children longer.

The Denny family remains calm through it all. “Lean on the Lord,” Tammy said of their strength. “Jesus, daily,” Pete added.

While the Dennys are away with Jaxx, Rockingham County is representing him with bracelets and shirts with the words “Team Jaxx” on them. A golf tournament for Jaxx is also in the works for April.

Jaxx’s journey can be followed on Facebook at Straightening up (Jaxx Denny).