Joshua Bradley Sykes was 15 years old when he passed away of Duchenne�s Muscular Dystrophy on Friday, February 7, 2003 at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. We found Joshua had Duchenne�s Muscular Dystrophy when he was six. Josh enjoyed running his Nitro Demon Monster Trucks and was a master of Play Station Two.
Joshua competed in Special Olympics. He was the reigning three-year winner of the electric wheel chair race.
Joshua is buried beside his Great Grand Father, Everett James Taylor and Great Grandmother, Willa Mearl {Quackenbush} Taylor in the Taylor Family burial lots at Green Hill Cemetery in Bedford, Indiana.
Duchenne�s Muscular Dystrophy is a fast progressive degeneration of the muscle fibers (the most common type) affects one or two boys in every 10,000 boys. There is no effective treatment for the disease. Children generally live to be 16 to 21 years of age.
Josh had four surgeries on his heel cords to help keep his feet flat.
The Doctors wanted to put a steel rode down his back but then decided not to.
Josh had hammertoes on both feet because of the shortening of his tendons in is feet. His fingers started to curl up towards his palms, which made so he couldn�t open his hands flat.
When he was ten he was in a push wheelchair; by the age of eleven he was in a motorized wheelchair.