- July 26, 2024
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Seabreeze Principal Tucker Harris presents Eli Havens with his diploma as his older brother Caleb supports him on stage during the commencement exercises at the Ocean Center. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze Sandcrab Eli Havens and his older brother Caleb line up before entering the Ocean Center auditorium for the Class of 2024 commencement exercises. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze Sandcrab Eli Havens is pushed to the front of the Ocean Center auditorium by his older brother Caleb before graduating at the Class of 2024 commencement exercises. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze Sandcrab Eli Havens is pushed to the front of the Ocean Center auditorium by his older brother Caleb before graduating at the Class of 2024 commencement exercises. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze graduate Eli Havens gets help to stand up from his older brother Caleb before he gets his diploma from Principal Tucker Harris at the Ocean Center. Photo by Michele Meyers
A total of 365 Seabreeze High School grads crossed the stage at the Ocean Center on May 24. For one Sandcrab, the journey to experiencing that milestone involved an ambulance and medical team from the Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital.
For almost the past two months, Eli Havens has been battling a health complication due to his Crohn's Disease, which he was first diagnosed with at age 10. On April 12, Havens was experiencing a 105-degree fever, believed at first to be caused by the flu, when his mom decided to take him to the emergency room. Once at AdventHealth, doctors performed a chest X-Ray and decided to send him to Arnold Palmer, where they discovered he had bowel perforations due to the type of Chron's he has. The perforations, his mother Andrea Bussell said, led to sepsis and infected his liver.
In the first week he spent in the hospital, his kidneys also started shutting down, requiring him to go on dialysis.
"He spent three weeks in the ICU," Bussell said. "But the entire time, as long as he was able to, he focused on trying to get his schoolwork done online."
Because Havens really wanted to cross that stage with his fellow classmates. He had even done physical therapy at the hospital to be able to build up enough strength and stamina for the ceremony.
He spent his 18th birthday and prom night at the hospital. Bussell said she decorated his room for his birthday and they celebrated with a little bit of ice cream birthday cake. The hospital's staff signed a big posted board for him.
As graduation approached, the family asked his doctors if it would be a possibility for him to attend the ceremony. They initially didn't know if he would be discharged in time — Haven's health complications were being tackled on a day by day basis.
Three weeks before the ceremony, doctors presented Havens and Bussell with two options: If his health improved enough, they could grant Havens a day pass for his mom to take him to graduation, or, they could arrange a hospital transport team to escort him personally.
"Ironically, it was the same transport team that transported him here to the hospital that night on [April 12]," Bussell said. "They transported him to the Ocean Center, sat there during the ceremony and then transported him back here to the hospital. When he came back that night, they had decorated his room congratulating him ... for his graduation."
Havens couldn't walk on his own across that stage, but his brother Caleb pushed him in a wheelchair. He stood to receive his diploma, and the entire crowd clapped, Bussell recalled.
"I get very emotional thinking about it, there and because nobody — none of his classmates, none of his friends, none of the parents, nobody — knew what all he'd gone through to that point, to be able to even still be here with us and be able to participate with graduation."
Seabreeze High School Principal Tucker Harris said he loved watched Havens cross that stage.
"I loved seeing his grit and resilience," he said. "It was honorable to see him come across there and his brother pushing him."
It's an example of the culture of the school, he said — that Havens, despite all he'd gone through — wanted to be there.
"To me as principal, that's the most profound thing," Harris said.
In a statement to the Observer, Havens said that he wanted to thank the transport team for "helping to make it special for him," as well as to his doctor, Dr. Lawrence Spack, and the critical care nurses and team for allowing him to go.
Havens was also thankful for his teacher, Tonya Wilhelm, for helping him have access to his schoolwork while in the hospital.
Havens' counselor John Conforti, Seabreeze Assistant Principal Stinamay Lagrotta and Harris also were supportive, Bussell said.
"They were all just amazed and astounded that, being as sick as he was, he managed to be able to get his schoolwork done while being in the hospital, so that he could push forward to graduate," Bussell said.
