Bay toddler baffles medics with one-of-a-kind ailment

KATE NEWTON
Napier toddler Reuben Hankins is Hawke's Bay's own international man of mystery.
The two-year-old has stumped doctors who haven't been able to diagnose his condition.
Born healthy, Reuben had a massive seizure when he was four months old. It left him physically and mentally disabled and having seizures daily.
Still nobody has found why he has the seizures that have left him unable to move and having to be fed through a "'button" in his stomach.
But one thing the doctors do know is Reuben is the only person in New Zealand with his condition - whatever it may be.
For his parents, Craig and Lisa, it's the frustration of not knowing what is wrong with their son that gets to them. "There's nothing worse than when people ask you what's wrong with your kid and you have to say you don't know," Craig said.
There is no support network for the family to turn to because there is no label for what is wrong with Reuben.
At Starship Hospital in Auckland, Lisa wasn't able to get funding for her meals because Reuben didn't fit into a category.
Craig said the family understood Reuben's disability was just one of those things that could happen but they felt as if their young son had fallen through the cracks and been put in the "too-hard basket".
The family had to take matters into their own hands to get a much-needed purpose-built van.
The van will make it easier for Lisa to lift Reuben into his car-seat. They will eventually have wheelchair access built into it.
A garage sale raised $1500 to be put toward the cause and secondhand musical instruments on the TradeMe website are also starting to sell.
The next step is to approach businesses to assist with the costs, and Craig and Lisa are hoping the community will be able to help out.
The family's application for funding from the Lotteries Commission was turned down because they were in the middle income bracket.
But that's not to say they can afford the costs that having a disabled child entails.
"If we could afford it we would have been hooning around in a van months ago," Lisa said.
Once the money for the van is raised, the family would like to start a charity for other disabled children whose parents weren't as aware of ways to raise money as the Hankins had been.