One brave little boy: Community rallies around family shaken by 10-year-old’s rare diagnosis

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - A fun night at a Cardinals game quickly took a turn for the worse for one family after their 10-year-old son started vomiting uncontrollably.

“He’s screaming, we’re not talking about ‘Ow, ow,’ we’re talking wails of pain,” said Joshua Kissen. “We’ve never seen that from him; that’s not who he is.”

10-year-old Hayden Kissen and his family have had a tough month after being in and out of the hospital multiple times.

Joshua Kissen says their family’s lives changed when doctors diagnosed their son Hayden with an extreme case of HSP, a rare disorder that causes blood vessels in his skin to become inflamed.

In Hayden’s case, it caused severe intestinal complications.

“Your child’s on life support. How do you come to grips with the fact that a machine is keeping your child alive at this point? I mean, it terrifies you,” said Joshua.

Hayden is a fourth grader at Cynthia Heights in Evansville. Their entire family is currently in Louisville where the 10-year-old is getting treatment at Norton Children’s Hospital.

All in the span of about a month, four hospitals, three emergency surgeries and two helicopter transports for one incredibly brave little boy.

“Any time he gets scared, or anytime he knows something is about to happen, he just reached his hands out and asks us to pray for him,” said Hayden’s mother, Angela Kissen.

Hayden’s mom Angela says dozens of Tri-State businesses have reached out to help the family with medical bills. One of those local shops is Honey Moon Coffee on Evansville’s west side.

Honey Moon Coffee vice president Paige Venturi says it was Hayden’s classmate who raised the idea that they do a giveback to help out.

“She was just really affected by Hayden’s story and that struck a chord with us as well and we wanted to help anyway we can,” said Venturi.

The west side location is giving 20 percent of Thursday evening’s sales to Hayden’s family

While the Kissen family’s last few weeks have been a nightmare whirlwind of medical procedures, Angela and Joshua say they’ve walked away with a lesson in human kindness.

The Kissen family says strangers as far as Idaho and Alaska have reached out to offer their help to the family.

They say one individual has even gifted Hayden his dream dog, a little corgi puppy.

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