Westfield couple's son a medical mystery

WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) - A little boy from Westfield is making medical history at Riley Hospital.

Ethan Hine has a series of problems, which have no known diagnosis and have stumped his doctors.

Born almost seven months ago, his case can't be found in medical journals.

Dr. Anna Dusick, of Riley Hospital, is one nine physicians who treat Ethan.

She says Ethan has a host of problems. He was born without eyes, he has cleft palate, a defective heart and problems with his small intestine.

With all the money for research, there is none for this little boy.

"Each one of us can look at Ethan," says Dr. Dusick, "and we can help him in the area we're in and yet we may not be able to put all the pieces together."

More common conditions have much more money for research.

The budget for research for juvenile diabetes in 2009 was $101 million.

The National Cancer Institute's budget for one year is 4.8 billion.

Ethan's mother, Kelli, says until they had Ethan she had no knowledge about human genetics. She'd like to see more research money devoted to that area of medicine.

One thing the Hines do have is the support of their friends and family in Westfield. Quiet gifts have saved them the stress of caring for such a unique little boy.

"More than once we got up in the morning and there was an envelope with money in it
stuck in our front door," says Ethan's father Jason. "No card, no name. Somebody gave us some money for fuel and parking down here. Just random acts of kindness we call it."

Ethan Hine has already had surgeries on his heart and small intestine. More are on the way, but for now doctors are trying to solve some of the problems with his digestion so he can tolerate surgeries in the future.