Gracie’s Service Dog and medical bills

Update: We have spent 8 months trying to find answers for Gracie she even has an appointment with Vanderbilt next month but on 12/23/24 Gracie had another seizure just as bad as the first two this time she was awake when it started thank God it didn’t happen an hour before and again we got to her I had to bag her while EMS was on the way they flew her to Children’s but this time we’re not able to stop the seizure prior to arrival even with the medication I gave her and the EMS gave her.

She aspirated in the process and developed pneumonia and ultimately ARDS. After 11 days in the PICU on the ventilator she is now just in oxygen and in the step down unit and will be for an unknown amount of time. My goal is to still have her a service dog to alert us in the event of another seizure we still need about 28 more thousand dollars to make that happen.

From the beginning….

My name is Leah. We adopted our daughter when she was 2 months old.

I’m not good at asking for help but I will do anything for my babies so here it goes…

Gracie has a genetic condition that combined with early environmental lack of medical care has caused her to spend her 2.5 years catching up.

She has come so far with weekly therapy and overcome so many obstacles in her little life already but we need help overcoming the newest one.

Just after her second birthday she had her first complex seizure. It was determined to be a febrile seizure but her fever did not start until right after her seizure. It lasted over 30 mins and she stopped breathing but was able to start back without CPR but had to be airlifted to Children’s hospital. They found she had a common cold and the first symptom was the seizure.

We went home and have been very careful to monitor for fevers thinking early detection and her as needed medicine would be enough to keep her safe, it wasn’t.

Last week thank goodness she was in the living room on a pallet and my husband saw her seizure start.

This time it lasted just as long but even with the medicine the seizure did not stop and she stopped breathing sooner and completely coded. I am a Nurse and provided CPR on the way to meet the ambulance. Thankfully it worked but as soon as she was revived the seizure started again. It would take 2 more doses of medicine to stop the 30 min long seizure.

While admitted to Children’s Hospital she was again diagnosed with another cold virus. She developed a fever 8 hours after her seizure.

She is extremely high risk for this to happen the next time she comes in contact with a cold and living in a home with 4 other siblings it’s only a matter of time before that occurs again.

Both seizures she stopped breathing and both occurred when she was sleeping.

She does not qualify for a monitor due to her being over 12 months and they said the parameters of vital signs would not likely alarm us until she had stopped breathing for a while.

My biggest fear is waking up to my baby dead because her last seizure was SILENT.

The best solution I can come up with is a service dog. That could aid with both mobility and alert us in the event of a medical emergency.

I have looked into non-profit options that help with service animals and she is not old enough and does not have seizures often enough to qualify for a service animal via any of the charities I have found.

I found a trainer who could provide a dog in as little as 6 months (since the dog has been in training) but I don’t have the last 30 thousand dollars to make it happen.

So I’m asking for your help! I can’t guarantee this will save my daughter but I know had we not provided medical attention as fast as we did I would be paying for a funeral instead and so I have to try to provide her with some safety.

Thank you for your consideration!