News Release

July 11, 2007

Boise State Student and His Family Selected
for TV’s ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’

Earlier today, the lives of the members of the Stockdale family in Middleton were changed profoundly when they were told they had been selected to be featured on ABC TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

Ryan Stockdale — a 26-year-old Boise State student majoring in biology with a concentration in molecular and cell biology —his wife, Karia, and their four children were greeted by “Extreme Makeover” team leader Ty Pennington’s famous “good morning” wake-up call. Pennington, along with the other designers, surprised the unsuspecting family with news that their home has been chosen to receive the made-for-TV makeover. The family was told that the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” crew will be transforming their current home into a dream house in just seven days.

Ryan and Karia are high school sweethearts who married right after graduation. Their family has been beset with a variety of illnesses. All four of their kids suffer from a rare disease known as eosinophilic enteropathy. EE is a white blood cell disease that attacks proteins, preventing the ingestion and digestion of food. It also affects and causes disease of the lungs, kidneys, blood, intestines, and immune system. Ryan said one of the reasons he decided to major in biology at Boise State is to help find a cure for the children’s affliction.

While Pennington and the designers, local builder Corey Barton Homes, and hundreds of volunteers and workers rebuild their home in just seven days, the Stockdale family will vacation at the Hilton in Philadelphia. The episode, “Stockdale Family,” will air on
ABC during the 2007-2008 season. Volunteers are being recruited to help with the home makeover project.

Kayden, the healthiest Stockdale child, was born with gastroschisis, in which the intestines are outside the body. He underwent two surgeries to repair the defect. In addition to EE, he also struggles daily with obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory integration disorder and Tourette’s syndrome.

Jetty, now 5, was diagnosed with EE after suffering through two years of pneumonia and various infections. Unable to eat food, he and his 4-year-old sister Baylee are fed with the help of feeding tubes. Jetty is excited to begin kindergarten next year, but will likely need to be home-schooled due to the severity of his medical condition. Baylee’s EE recently sent her to the emergency room to undergo a four-hour operation after her feeding tube was changed incorrectly. She spent the next two weeks in ICU fighting for her life. She still experiences infections that resulted from the surgery and her disease continues to spread. The youngest Stockdale, 2-year-old McKinnon, was born two months premature, weighing in at only 3 pounds. She was diagnosed with EE six months ago and doctors fear that the disease is spreading to her lungs, as it has with her brother Jetty.

Ryan has his own share of health problems, having been diagnosed with migraine glaucoma, which recently caused his brother to go blind. Ryan has undergone multiple brain scans and spinal taps in an attempt to treat his problem. Despite his own medical problems, he always puts his children first and returned to college to study biology and immunology at Boise State in the hopes of one day finding a cure for his children’s disease. Karia acts as the family nurse, staying home and caring for the kids. While pregnant with McKinnon, Karia suffered a rare complication that forced her to undergo five major surgeries and 30 blood transfusions, during which she spent four months in ICU.

Despite the family’s medical setbacks, Karia and Ryan stay active in their community. They created a book drive for their alma mater, Middleton High School, after the library was destroyed by a fire. Karia is a weekly tutor at Middleton Mill Creek Elementary and is also the head of a humanitarian group that helps those in need all over the country. She and her quilting group were part of their church's worldwide effort that recently sent 40,000 quilts to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The family home only exacerbates the children’s illnesses, with its coal-burning furnace causing the kids to cough constantly and break out in hives. They get their water from an indoor well and, due to the weak plumbing system, can only run one water-using appliance at a time.

The Stockdale family battles illness on a daily basis, but their love and support for each other helps them get by. Now it’s up to “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” to pull together to give them a healthy home that will provide the whole family with a place to recover. The location address is: The Stockdale Family, 9504 Purple Sage Road, Middleton, ID 83644.

The design team for this episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will feature Pennington and designers Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis, Eduardo Xol and John Littlefield.

To learn more about the Stockdales and serve as volunteers go to http://www.cbhhomes.com/extreme-makeover/

Boise State University is the largest institution of higher education in Idaho, offering more than 190 fields of interest in eight colleges. The deadline for degree-seeking students to apply for fall admission is July 18. Discover the New U Beyond the Blue.
 

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Last reviewed on Monday, August 27, 2007