MAGGIE AKERS YOUNGER SISTER TO SYDNEY & KAYLEE • PLAYS LACROSSE AT CENTRAL • IS CONSIDERING A CAREER IN PEDIATRIC MEDICINE, AMONG OTHER FIELDS • DAUGHTER OF JULIE & JEFF
Maggie Akers’ parents knew she was failing to thrive as an infant, but they didn’t know why. Eating was clearly a painful ordeal for her. Rounds of testing yielded no answers, and physicians were baffled.
Finally at 20 months old — after enduring 13 endoscopies — Maggie was diagnosed with a chronic condition called eosinophilic esophagitis, or EOE. The disease causes her esophagus to become inflamed and constrict.
“Food gets stuck and it’s really painful,” she said. “Throwing up is a big thing.”
Maggie depended on a surgically inserted feeding tube until age 4, and subsisted largely on a prescription formula she could more easily digest for many years after that. When Maggie was in elementary school, her mom Julie heard about the CURED Foundation (an acronym for Campaign Urging Research into Eosinophilic Disease), which raises money to learn more about how to treat it.
“I remember passing out CURED bracelets to my classmates at school,” she said.
Now a 15-year-old Hinsdale sophomore, Maggie decided it was time to do her part for the cause by organizing a benefit at her family’s Hinsdale home last week. The event drew about 80 people to learn from experts about EOE and offer their contributions to help advance medical science’s approach to it. By the end of the evening, $52,000 had been collected. Maggie was among those addressing the guests.
“I don’t mind public speaking that much, but right before I went up I got a little nervous,” she admitted.
In her remarks she thanked her loved ones.
“Not everyone has the amazing family and friends that I had to get me through this,” Maggie said, also expressing gratitude to close friends Lily Oosterbaan and Raegan Hutter, also an EOE patient, for helping her plan the event.
“And we started a junior board, and they helped us set up,” she noted.
As a child Maggie understood little of the medical rationale behind the dozens of procedures she was subjected to. Today she’s much more informed about her health care requirements.
“Now getting my surgeries I actually understand what (the doctors) are saying and know why I’m being treated,” she said.
Becoming aware of the larger EOE community has helped her persevere.
“There’s four people on our block alone that we found out had it,” Maggie remarked.
Her current diet has few restrictions, but flare-ups will occur with little warning that compel her to abstain from dairy products, gluten and other triggering foods.
“I’ll know because my stomach becomes painful, my esophagus is painful,” said Maggie, who takes a prescription to help.
She’s thankful for the awareness-raising work of the CURED Foundation.
“They really helped my mom get information when I was younger,” she said. “It’s a community of parents who can talk to each other and be there for each other.”
Maggie still bears the scar near her belly button from when the feeding tube was her lifeline.
“I could get it closed up but I decided I didn’t want to,” she said. “Everything I’ve been through is such a big part of my life, and it showed me that I can get through anything.”
