A Seizure Response Dog for Princess Leia

Our daughter Leia was born April 2nd, 2018 10 weeks early, struggling just to breath from the beginning. She finally went home after 32 days in the NICU. We thought this would be the last time that our baby would ever had to be in the hospital. Unfortunately, three weeks later she was unable to eat or keep anything down. We took her to the Emergency Room at SMH, where doctors told us she needed to be immediately transported to All children’s Hospital. Little Leia was then diagnosed with pyloric stenosis. The pyloric muscle connects the stomach to intestines and helps to move food out of the stomach, so that the body can digest it. Her pyloric muscle had contracted and would not release causing her to throw up constantly. As we waited for the surgery to be done, we found out that the first attempt had failed; the surgeon did not give up, so she spent more time in the OP room to try again. Finally, she was successful in releasing Leia’s Pyloric muscle. After three days of recovery, Leia was released, and her mother promised her that this would be the last time at the hospital. I wish that we could say that the promise was never broken.


 After her 1st birthday we had noticed her head dropping. At first, we thought that maybe she was tired or just had problems holding her head up. This started happening more and more often, so we took her to her pediatrician, who referred us to a neurologist. After waiting months to get into the neurologist, she had her first EEG which maps out her brain. This entire time she had been having seizures, but they had no idea what kind they were. Leia was admitted to All Children’s Hospital to run a series of tests. Three days later we found out that her seizures were coming from her entire brain and not from one spot like most people diagnosed with epilepsy. Her neurologist was not satisfied with the test results, so he referred us to the Neurosurgical Center at Nicklaus’s Children’s Hospital in Miami, where after four days of studies and 24/7 EEGs Leia was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, which is a rare kind of epilepsy with multiple types of seizures. With this type of epilepsy, she has a small chance of growing out of them and a bigger chance of the seizures getting worse. Since then she has tried four different medications, and nothing seemed to help control her seizures. In Leia’s case, she has an average of 30 seizures a day, even when she is sleeping. Sometimes she cries out in pain, other times she seems confused and displaced from reality. What is worse is that due to these seizures she stopped talking and walking, which also lead her to be diagnosed with a speech delayed, so we have begun speech therapy for her. 




Every day since her diagnosis we have feared for her wellbeing and future. We have investigated into a variety of different resources to help our Leia. Because of her seizures, sometimes she falls headfirst to the ground, so we were able to get her a specialized helmet. Since she was 6 months old, we noticed how much she loved big dogs; she would constantly laugh and run to any dog without fear and the best part was she was happy and the dogs never showed her the slightest bit of aggression. We found that there are service dogs for people who have seizures. These dogs help to keep these individuals safe, alert others they are having a seizure, and comfort them until the seizure is over. She loves running and playing outside, but we have limited her to a small area in our house, so she cannot get hurt. When Leia has seizures, she likes to come to mom or dad for comfort; with this dog she would have more freedom to run around and play. The service dog that will give her a little bit more of independence and become her best friend and companion. 



ASA Service Dogs, a non-profit organization in Lakeland, FL provides Seizure Response Service Dogs, and we have started the process to obtain one for Leia. We were recently contacted by the organization telling us that she was approved to have the service dog. We are so thrilled to know that we can do this for our little girl. Unfortunately, the cost for the dog is $13,500, and there is a 4-month waiting list, which does not include the time it will take to train the dog which could be anywhere from 6-15 months. We cannot even put her on the waiting list until the organization receives $8,950, which includes a $500 deposit. Once the rest of the money is sent to the organization and training has been completed, an exit day for the dog will be determined.

Anything helps, even your prayers!