Fire departments plan benefit for Rhett Kurpgeweit

Two area fire and rescue departments will give an area couple and their 16-month-old son assistance with ongoing medical bills during an upcoming fundraiser.

Members of the Ewing and Bartlett fire departments will host a benefit for Rhett Kurpgeweit, his parents Matt and Alyx and sister, Wesley, Saturday, Jan. 20, at the Wheeler County Fairgrounds in Bartlett. The event will begin at 5 p.m.

A freewill offering will be accepted for the meal. Silent auction items and a gun raffle are also planned.

Rhett has been diagnosed with lissencephaly, known as smooth brain syndrome.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, lissencephaly is a rare congenital condition that affects one in 100,000 babies.

In the disease, the "lack of normal development of brain gyri (folds or bumps in the brain) and sulci (indentations or grooves) makes an affected baby's brain appear smooth.

The gyri and sulci serve a significant purpose: separate regions of the brain and increase a brain's surface area and cognitive ability.

Symptoms may include seizures, difficulty swallowing, developmental delays, muscle spasms, problems with hand-eye coordination, smaller-than-normal head size.

According to Alyx Kurpgeweit, on a Go Fund Me account established for the family, "When Rhett was around six months old, we realized more and more that he just wasn't developing like he should be. He wasn't meeting the milestones of all "normal" babies."

The Kurpgeweits connected with a neurologist and a magnetic resonance image was conducted.

"The neurologist had initally said he's presenting as a cerebral palsy baby. This is something we could deal with," Kurpgeweit wrote.

When the MRI results came back, the diagnosis was made.

Rhett currently attends three or four therapy sessions a week and the family travels to Omaha for monthly checkups.

To learn more about the Kurpgeweit Go Fund Me account, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/rally-for-baby-rhett.