Help support Lauren through her medical emergency

On Monday night, April 10th, Lauren woke up in the wee hours of the morning with a severe asthma attack. Dakota rushed her to the ER. The asthma attack then brought on cardiac arrest. CPR had to be performed to bring her back. She is now in ICU on a ventilator in critical condition. This has been so traumatic and terrifying to say the least, for the entire family. Please stand with them in prayer, for comfort and complete healing of Lauren!!! Pray for answers, so Lauren will not have to keep experiencing these scary asthma attacks!

A few days have passed and she continues to be in critical condition but stable. They have her in a comatose and paralyzed state on a ventilator. She was experiencing seizures the day before yesterday. They have been able to control that with medication.

Yesterday, the CT scan of her brain did not show anything too concerning, which is such great news!!! However, the MRI showed signs of possible meningitis. The Dr's started her on meds last night for this and she had a spinal tap this morning to analyze the fluid around her brain. Those results will take a day or 2. She's not having any seizures right now, so the Dr's are considering, decreasing the anti-seizure meds to see how she does today.

I will continue to update here as they receive news.

As family, friends and community PLEASE help lift them up!! Oliver's parents need our help!! If you can help financially that will help relieve some stress. More than anything Lauren needs our prayers!!! Thank you all so much!!

Update from Denise this weekend.....

We did not get good news this morning. When they tried to lower the anti-seizure meds she started seizing again. Took a bit to get them to stop and they have started her on another one that is stronger. They will do another MRI maybe Tuesday to see if they can see any brain trauma. Been told it can take several days after the event to show up on imaging and hopefully the brain swelling has gone down enough to show any damage as well. This delays them in being able to try and wake her and no time given at this time when they will. We absolutely need a miracle for our baby!! Please keep the prayers coming we believe in them and know there is power in prayer and want to flood God with them and be relentless with them!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!

Update from Denise yesterday, 4-17

The MRI came back clear of any significant injury or damage to the brain. That is the good news so now we know that for sure. The seizures are still evidence of brain injury and it’s manifesting in this manner. Our next hurdle is getting them controlled to try and wake her. As the neurologist put it, she is cautiously optimistic and has prescribed her the strongest anti-seizure medication they have. It is also a very heavy sedative that stays in the system for quite a while so it will delay being able to try waking her. It does however really keep the brain from having any activity to allow it time to rest and heal with hopes it will stop the electrical activity that leads to seizures. So good news but not out of the woods yet. Best case scenario she is able to be woken up and may end up on anti-seizure meds for the rest of her life. Worst case which we are obviously praying does not happen is that she is unable to be woken up because she seizes when sedation is lowered, which means she may never be able to be woken up and on vent the rest of her life. They may move her to another hospital with Neurologists that specialize in epilepsy and seizures. Our hospital does not have Neurologists with that subspecialty. We will know this in a few days if they feel they can work with her at our hospital or need to move her. Thank you for continuing to pray with us for the brain to calm down, rest, heal and stop seizing. We need our baby girl restored in full health!! Will not accept never seeing her beautiful brown eyes open again or hearing her voice again!!! We still need a miracle!!!

Update 4-18

They are flying her through flight for life to another hospital in Denver. Swedish Medical Center. Please pray she is stable and for a safe flight!!!

Update from Denise, 4-20

Transfer went well and as soon as she got here they started her on a very strong anti-seizure medication to start getting them under control. She struggled with seizures last night as they weaned her off one of the sedation meds so they added a 4th med to stop them and so far they are under control. They want to give the brain 24-48 hours on the very strong medication to really keep the brain asleep and inactive with hopes it’s working to help shut the seizures down. They will look at starting to wean her off this medication in a day or two depending on how the 24 hours go from last night. It’s not a medication they can keep her on very long as the body does not like it and it will start to shut other organs down. They are monitoring this very closely while she’s on it. If all goes well and no seizures, then they will start slowly reducing sedation and see if they can start to wake her up early next week. It’s a very slow tedious process and if at any time she starts seizing then they will put the brain back to sleep and start the whole 24-48 hour waiting period and start the process all over again. They may end up keeping her in comatose state for another 2-3 weeks if she is unable to stop seizing and not even try to wake her as it will be apparent then her brain needs more down time for healing. They are still cautiously optimistic with the 2 clear MRI’s that did not show significant brain damage. They will do another one next week. They feel she really has a fighting chance and they are aggressive in treating her because they feel she has a strong chance to come out of it. They would not have accepted her case and had her flown over if they felt otherwise. So it’s going to be a long haul and excruciating waiting period and we truly will not know the extent of the microscopic damage the brain has until she is fully awake and all the sedation meds are out of her system. She could be in here for several more weeks and then still have a long rehab and recovery period. I’m believing Gods plan is otherwise!!!

Update From Denise 4-22

PRAISE REPORT!!! Yesterday morning was not a good morning one of the worst for this momma! They tried to start weaning her off the sedation medicine and she failed it started to have seizures right away. During rounds with her medical team it was a bleak report and it was told by doctor if she is unable to be weaned off sedation and try waking her up by mid next week then we needed to start talking about and decide what Lauren would want meaning keep her on life support or let her go. I was NOT ok with that and started praying like crazy and calling on family and friends to pray we need a miracle!!!

Fast forward about 8 or so hours later and not the usual will wait 24 plus hours to give brain some more rest before trying again, for whatever reason they decided to try the weaning off process again from the sedation late yesterday afternoon. Now a little more than 24 hours later when we are told we may have to decide to let our baby girl go SHE IS COMPLETELY OFF SEDATION MEDS AND NO SEIZURES!! She also went a little further and surprised the heck out of the nurses and RT by breathing on her own with no ventilation assistance for a little more than 2 hours and never required the vent to kick on to assist her. The RT was so shocked saying this does not happen have never seen this before her lungs should not be strong enough to breath for her this long while still under some sedation and still critical maybe a few minutes but not over 2 hours!! She was still breathing on her own when RT turned vent back on to give her body a rest!!! Lauren is on her way to waking up!!! God is on the move and he is working this out for our baby!!! Our next miracle we need is when she does wake up there will be no brain damage we have to work through and for a complete and totally recovery back to full health!! She is not out of the woods yet but nothing is too big or impossible for God!!! Please continue to lift her up, believing and praying for total and complete restoration of her health!!! Thank you so so so much with all our hearts God is hearing all our prayers and He is moved by them, hearing them and answering them!! Tears of joy

Update From Denise 4-23- Wonderful update.....Not even 24 hours later....

Another very specific prayer request for Lauren today!! She did well yesterday and overnight so they decided this morning to go ahead and start to wean her from the pentobarbital. This one is going to be a little nerve wracking. It’s a very strong anti seizure med with an anesthesia effect. They can only do .1mg an hour and the dose she was on IF she doesn’t fail at any point meaning showing signs of seizure activity it will take up to 24 hours to be off it. If at any point she does fail, they will raise the dosage back up and they have to wait 2-3 days before they can start the process over again and this is how a patient in her condition can take 6-7 weeks before they are off the medication and still have to wait several days afterwards before they will wake up. It stays in the system and keeps the patient still sleeping. So we truly will not know what the brain looks like until she is fully awake and this medication is completely out of her system. I’m praying and believing she does not have any fails today or tomorrow and she will be off this medication 24 hours from now and there will no lasting meds in her system and she will wake up seizure and brain damage free!!! God can do it and I’m not believing or giving up hope!!! He already did a miracle yesterday and he can do it again today and tomorrow until our baby is home and living her life to the fullest!! Thank you for continuing to pray and believe with us to be off this medication with no seizures to interfere with the weaning and for total restoration and healing from asthma as well so this never happens again. I’m believing she will walk out of the Neuro ICU with all her strength back and no brain rehab or physical rehab and lengthy recovery they say she will have. I believe God’s report that says nope I’m raising her up totally and completely in Jesus name!!

Update from Denise- Thursday April 27, 2023

So we got a bag of mixed news today. They will be doing a tracheotomy for her ventilator and a PEG line in her stomach for feeding as she is not able to maintain breathing on her own long enough to be off the ventilator. She is still under a lot of sedation from the residual anesthesia effects from the stronger anti-seizure meds they have weaned her off from. She is still having some extreme myoclonic, jerking movements and spasms and more non-responsive. The clear MRIs are absolutely the good news, and in our favor with showing no other brain damage significant enough to show up on imaging. With that said, though, the jerking spastic movements It does indicate some severe brain damage and again still won’t know the full extent until she is fully awake and no sedating meds are left in her system.

As far as the myoclonic symptoms, they say she could be like this for weeks and months there really is no timetable and possibly in a couple of weeks if they are able to come down and off some of the 6 other anti-seizure med she’s on and is more stable, she will be moved to a long-term acute care facility. They are preparing us that she could be in a facility like that for several months and then a rehab for months. They will continue to treat her aggressively with the goal of as much recovery as possible. Her age is very beneficial being so young the brain has more chances of healing and repairing and the clear MRI’s. Very overwhelmed with the news today and trying to process the best I can.

Just makes me press in more to God and fully leaning on him and trusting him. So we have heard the doctor reports but holding onto God’s report!!

Still some big prayers needed to keep praying and waiting to hear about Dakota’s scans he is having today to see what’s going on with the cancer! Believing and praying for him and a good report the Lord knows we need one!! A very daunting day today to say the least but will not doubt or loose hope!! Our God is the God of the impossible and He is faithful and will prevail I believe this with all my heart!!

I'm sorry I haven't updated sooner......

Update from Denise- Monday June 5th

She was moved last week to the Acute Rehab Unit in Swedish Medical Center. Unfortunately the place we really wanted fell through but we are trusting and believing God has her where he wants her to be. Has been a little challenging this first week but she is very motivated with all her therapies. She has speech language and pathology, occupational and physical therapy every day 3-4 hours. The Lance Adams Syndrome they believe she has from the hypoxic brain injury from the cardiac arrest is complicating things. The uncontrollable shaking, muscle spasms and jerking movements is challenging to say the least. Also affects her vocal cords and one of them is swollen and may have some nerve damage from being intubated before they did the tracheotomy so those two things are slowing her ability to learn to talk again but she won’t give up and works very hard with all the work she has to do and the last couple days she has been saying more words and some sentences!! That is HUGE!!! Her resilience, strength and perseverance makes you stand back in awe!!! Unfortunately had a little blip and on Thursday she started having seizures again, several that day so she ended up back on the EEG and Leeds put back on her head. Was scary for her, first time feeling them since being awake. Thankfully after monitoring for a few days they felt confident in being able to remove the LEEDS and machines as there was no seizure activity. This girls determination to push herself hard even after multiples seizures and lack of sleep she still wanted to do all her therapy even hooked up to a machine and proceeded to work hard in speech therapy despite the myoclonus movements being off the charts and again stood up multiple times!! She’s beyond incredible and her smile seems to never leave her face she lights up the room and every nurse and doctor who sees her are so amazed by her and her progress and how far she has come!!

The best news that has happened this past week she was finally able to see Oliver and that was so amazing!! Their first time to see each other in 8 weeks. It was a beautiful moment and so heart felt one none of us will ever forget!! She cried alot as to be expected lol. Oliver did better than was expected. Her shaking confused him a bit but he was a total sweetheart and they were both so happy to be reunited!!! She will continue with acute rehab to get her ready for home where she will then have home health and therapy for a couple months then when she has progressed from that will go onto outpatient therapy. We are asking and believing God will speed up her healing process and more than anything we are asking for this LAS to be completely removed from her body, her brain fully restored and she will not have to learn to live with it and have some difficulties with using her arms, hands and legs. I am believing she will walk again, have use of her limbs, she will work again and be fully 100% percent restored!!! By His stripes she IS healed, she will rise up and be whole again in Jesus name and I won’t stop asking or believing for anything less!!! God is bigger than LAS and He is in control and I won’t stop believing or asking for it!!! Please keep praying and believing with us!! Her miracle started when God started her heart again and I know He has great plans for her and her life fully restored and healed!!! She says thank you with all her heart for the outpouring of love, support and prayers. I read the comments to her and she loves them and cries through it all as she recognizes just how loved she is and the army of warriors surrounding her and praying her full recovery!!! Thank you all from the depths of our souls and hearts for the continued support!!!