TIFTON — Eight-year-old Kayden Rogers got to live part of his dream of becoming a police officer after he received an honorary badge from the Tift County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 29. 

Kayden’s grandmother, Barbara Paulhill, an office specialist at Tift Regional Medical’s Employee Medical Home, contacted Tift County Sheriff Gene Scarborough and asked if Kayden could receive an honorary badge before going into heart surgery to correct complications due to his Marfan syndrome.

Kayden was “sworn in” by Sheriff Gene Scarbourgh in front of his family before Scarbourgh pinned the badge to Kayden’s shirt. Scarbourgh then presented him as a new “deputy” to the Tift County Sheriff’s Office.

“Events like this are very important. They let children know that we are their friends and are there for them,” said Scarbourgh.

According to the Marfan Foundation, Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissue by causing a defect or mutation in the gene that tells the body how to make a protein called fibrilin-1.

Kayden’s Marfan syndrome has affected his eyes, lungs, heart, and feet.  Kayden has already gone through eye surgery, but is blind in his left eye, according to Kayden’s mother, Letese Burgess.

AKayden’s heart surgery is expected to take place next week, said Paulhill. The surgery will take place at the Hughston Clinic in Atlanta, where Kayden was born. Burgess said they had considered doing the surgery on Kayden’s heart as a baby, but decided to do treatments instead.

“They had also talked about having him sent to Maryland to see a specialist there,” says Burgess, “But a specialist from Texas came to the Hughston Clinic and will be able to perform the surgery there.” 

For the time being, Kayden takes blood pressure medication to lessen the effects of Marfen’s syndrome on his heart. But the medicine and the complications with Marfen’s syndrome haven’t stopped Kayden.  He wants to play football, he likes big trucks, and he frequently involves his siblings and cousins in a game of “cops,” according to Paulhill.