Atlantic Beach's Oliver Miller needs your help

Atlantic Beach resident Melissa Miller endured the death of a daughter, Melanie, in 1997. Then, two years later, seven weeks after her son, Oliver, was born, she learned that he had suffered a stroke in utero.

According to Miller, known to many as Missy, who served in the State Assembly from 2017-2022 and is now a Hempstead town councilwoman, Oliver’s prognosis was poor: Doctors said he wouldn’t live past his second or third birthday. He proved them wrong, and over the years Miller has immersed him in feeding, physical and speech therapy, which pushed him to do things that doctors never expected him to do. He is now 23.

But as a result of his stroke, Oliver experienced developmental delays, and is blind and suffers from daily seizures. “A lot of the structures in his brain are injured, so he doesn’t make certain hormones that you need to live,” his mother explained. “His brain stem was injured, so a lot of the signals that need to go from the brain to the body for normal functioning don’t get there correctly.”

Miller and her husband, Brandon, have another daughter, Katy, 29, who has no health issues. And instead of asking herself, “What happened?” or “Why us?” she said, she has been inspired by something author Gary Zukav said on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2012.

“We’re not in control of what happens in the big picture,” Miller remembers Zukav saying. “We have no control of it. The only thing we have control over is how we respond to what happens, how we respond to the big picture.”

As Oliver entered his tween years, Miller described it as hitting a “brick wall” due to the limitations of traditional treatment for him. “Doctors were saying, ‘There’s nothing else we can offer,’” she recalled. “‘We don’t know what else to try.’”

Not satisfied with that, Miller conducted her own research, seeking alternative therapies. Some were too expensive, and others weren’t legal in the United States.

Eventually she found a treatment that helped protect Oliver’s brain and improved his quality of life: an infusion of stem cells that helped him walk and make other physical improvements, and to communicate. Initially the Millers traveled to the Dominican Republic until the treatment was halted there, and then they went to Tijuana, Mexico, for stem cell infusions.

The restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic ended that decade-long effort.

Years without treatment created major challenges for Oliver, but now, a new stem cell infusion treatment has come to light which is FDA approved and available in the United States. The problem is its cost — roughly $15,000 per dose. Miller said the protocol he needs would be one dose per month for three months.

Determined to help his nephew, Andrew Levy, Miller’s brother, created a GoFundMe page for Oliver, to help the family afford the treatment.

“He’s spent probably more time at Winthrop Hospital this year than any prior year,” Levy said. “Oliver is a fighter, and when the chips look like they’re in the worst possible way they can be, he rebounds somehow in some way. He fights his way through it.”

The GoFundMe campaign is titled “Saving Oliver,” and as of press time, it had raised over $24,000 of its goal of $26,000.

“We’re super-appreciative of all the love and support that we’ve had coming out,” Levy said. “That goal that we put this GoFundMe at is a goal to get this treatment. You know, he may not make the year with us. We’ve come to that realization, but there’s never going to be a stone that we’re not going to turn to try to see what we can do.”

Levy added that despite their fears, his sister inspires him. “I’ve been fortunate enough to know some very amazing women in my life, my mother being one of them, and I always say that you can take 10 of the most amazing women that you’ve ever seen and have them stand on each other’s shoulder’s, and they would reach my sister’s waist,” he said. “You can’t put it into words. An unbelievably strong, amazing woman.”

“Everyone deserves any and all medical treatments available to help them get through tough times and continue on with their lives as healthily as they can,” Miller wrote on the gofundme page.

She said she was touched by the support community members and friends have shown for her son. Some of those who donated wrote words of encouragement on the page.

“It’s been overwhelming, the amount of support that keeps coming in,” Miller said. “Anybody that takes the time to connect with him, is rewarded for it,” she added of her son, “and I think that’s a reflection of what we’re seeing, and people have been touched by Oliver because he’s so special.”

To donate, go to GoFund.me/40982366.