Thad is a Pokémon-loving third grader who was born in Washington, DC and lives in Mesa, AZ with his mom, sister, bonus dad, and bonus brother and sister. He is our courageous little king (that’s what his name means!) and we love him so. You couldn’t meet a stronger, more brave young man. His favorite color is red, and he has some pretty awesome signature dance moves. If you meet him, definitely challenge him to a dance off. Also, if you know how to launch a successful YouTube channel, let him know cause that’s his dream. And he wants to be a life coach when he grows up. We think he’d be great because he has been doing hard things since the beginning.

This painting shows Thad's Enucleation procedure which is performed as a last resort, most often due to ocular tumors. The swelling, bruising and discomfort subsides over time. Six to eight weeks following enucleation, a patient will visit with an ocularist to fit a custom ocular prosthesis.Once the contents of the eye are removed, an implant is placed into the scleral shell. The sclera, Tenons, and conjunctiva are then closed over the implant and a temporary (clear plastic) conformer is put in place. The real artificial eye (prosthesis) is made in about 6-8 weeks.Thad had to have fat removed from his side (they had a really hard time finding any) and put into his eye cavity during a second, unplanned, surgery because the first time it didn’t take. All in all, he had three eye surgeries for the enucleation. Two for the original removal and one to lift the lid. This is in addition to the surgeries he had as a baby on his eye.