Help Eloise Fight Dravet Syndrome with a Seizure Alert Dog

We are the Lugo family! My husband, originally from Venezuela, and I met in Santiago, Chile in 2017. We fell in love quickly and spent years fighting to start our lives together in the United States. After a beautiful wedding in June 2021, we were thrilled to learn that we were expecting our first child.

Our daughter Eloise was born in March 2022, and she was perfect. However, when Eloise was just 5 months old, she had her first seizure, which lasted 45 minutes and required four rounds of high-dose emergency medication to stop. This marked the beginning of our journey with Dravet Syndrome.

Dravet Syndrome is a severe, intractable, and drug-resistant epilepsy, which means achieving seizure freedom is nearly impossible. Despite all available treatments, Eloise continues to experience frequent, life-threatening seizures. There is currently no cure for Dravet syndrome and is challenging to manage. Eloise’s mutation is ‘De Novo,’ meaning it is new in her and not inherited by either of her parents.

Children with Dravet Syndrome face many challenges beyond seizures, including speech and intellectual delays, mobility decline, autism, and feeding issues. The risk of SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) is a constant fear for families like ours. SUDEP and Accident-related deaths are the leading causes of death in persons with Dravet syndrome. To protect Eloise, we use various monitoring devices, including movement detection, pulse oximeters, and cameras, to ensure we can detect and respond to seizures promptly.

We are now seeking to get a Seizure Alert Dog for Eloise. These highly skilled dogs can catch falls, alert caregivers to seizures, monitor children at night, help with sleep quality, and assist with autism-related needs. Most importantly, they can significantly improve Eloise’s quality of life and safety.

Our goal is to raise funds to bring this invaluable addition to our family. We ask for your support through donations to our GoFundMe campaign. Additionally, we would be grateful if you could share Eloise’s story with your family, friends, and community. Eloise is a vibrant little girl who loves hugs, dancing to ABBA, singing, playing with stickers, enjoying "Frozen," cuddling her stuffed animals, and riding her bike. She has fought bravely for her life, and we want to give her every opportunity to thrive.

If you feel moved to support our cause, please share with your family, friends, and coworkers to help spread the word.

Thank you for your kindness and generosity.

Sincerely,

The Lugo Family

We have chosen to have our dog-trained by Mike Burkle. He has trained over 700 dogs in his lifetime and is from Minnesota. We were lucky enough to meet another Dravet family with a dog trained by Mike, which has solidified our decision. We have found a puppy that is ready to start training. Once we have funding we can begin this journey. Please see Mikes website linked below and a photo of the puppy we feel is a good fit for our family.

https://www.stoneymountaincanine.com/