JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –
A Westside boy may have to have surgery unless a back brace is found that was either lost or taken while he was at school. The young boy needs the brace and his family said it’s too expensive for the family to replace.
Keegan Beckham is 8 years old and his mom, Renee Beckham, is trying to help him use an old brace he’s outgrown for his scoliosis. It’s all the family has now because the brace he needs is missing.
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“It was Tuesday afternoon and my husband calls me and tells me they cannot find his brace. I’m like, ‘What do you mean you can’t find his brace?’” Beckham said.
Keegan is in third grade at Enterprise Learning Academy and is allowed to take his brace off when he goes outside for PE. According to the Beckhams that’s what he did, leaving it on his backpack, only to returned and find it gone.
“When he came back in, it was gone. We looked in trash cans, high, low, everywhere. We called parents who had left, two have called back, two have not called back,” Renee Beckham said.
The brace is designed to keep him from needing more surgeries, adjusting his spine as he grows, and the facility that sells them told the family they’re not cheap. Insurance only covers one per year and Keegan had just received the one he lost.
“They quoted me if I got $2,500 they would give Keegan another brace," Beckham said.
So the family hopes someone comes forward with the brace. And even if it was stolen, despite filing a police report, they don’t care about pressing charges. They said they just want it back, no questions asked.
“The doctor said he will eventually have to have surgery, we’re just trying to prolong it so the doctors don’t have to go in each time he grows and move the growing rods. (That’s) what they’re called,” Renee Beckham said.
Anyone with information on where the brace might be is asked to contact the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 904-630-0500.