Everett Kinkade has spent roughly 500 days of his seven years in a hospital bed, facing medical challenges that include a serious heart defect. Now the Knoxville boy’s image is beaming down from a billboard in Times Square, a long way from the pediatric intensive care unit where he has spent so much of his young life.
Everett was born with Down syndrome and a heart defect, according to WATE 6 On Your Side. He underwent heart surgery at just three months old and spent months in the hospital before he was finally able to go home, the station reports.
A String of Medical Setbacks
Everett’s health struggles did not end there. His challenges continued in 2023, when he contracted adenovirus and later developed both rhinovirus and enterovirus, requiring a ventilator to help him breathe, per the station’s report. He also underwent emergency surgery to remove about two-thirds of his colon, a procedure that was followed by another eight months in pediatric intensive care.
Through it all, Everett has found ways to communicate even though he cannot speak. The outlet notes that he uses sign language to connect with the people around him, a skill that has become central to how his family and care team understand his needs.
From Hospital Hallways to a Times Square Billboard
Despite — or perhaps because of — everything he has endured, Everett now serves as an ambassador for Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital, the same account states. That role has put him in front of cameras for commercials and, most strikingly, on a billboard towering over Times Square in New York City.
His family estimates Everett has spent about 500 days in a hospital bed over the course of his young life, a figure that underscores just how much ground he has covered to get to this moment. As the same report notes, his visibility as a hospital ambassador is helping other families see the joy that can exist alongside serious medical challenges.
Everett is not the only child with Down syndrome whose face has recently appeared on a Times Square billboard. A toddler named Riley Townsend from Saline County was also featured on a billboard there, according to a KATV report. Separately, a one-year-old boy from Acadiana was selected to appear on a Times Square billboard as part of the National Down Syndrome Society’s Buddy Walk, as reported by KLFY.
For Everett and his family in Knoxville, the billboard marks a striking contrast to the roughly 500 days he has spent in hospitals over his seven years. His story, as told through his ambassador role, continues to put a human face on what families navigating serious childhood illness experience every day.
