The LECS Project

In 2012, my middle son, Levi (7), was born with Spina Bifida. Spina bifida is a spine defect where the spinal chord fails to develop properly.

In Levi’s seven years of life, he has had 17 surgeries! In 2016, he had 9 of those surgeries. It was a brutal year for all of us. Levi endured a lot of pain and infections from the device that had to be used to drain his bladder after every one of his surgeries. We ended up having to spend 60 nights total in the hospital that year.  The majority reason was because of complications from the device that we were forced to have to use. By the beginning of April of that year, he had already had 6 surgeries/procedures. He was so worn out, I couldn’t take it anymore. To watch my son in that amount of pain was maddening. I felt so helpless as I held him screaming in pain. I was desperate to do something to help him. 
 
By July, his 7th surgery was scheduled and I made an appointment with his Urologist to discuss what was going to happen. I remember sitting in that appointment, and I asked the doctor, “What else is there? We can’t use that device again. I can’t do it. I can’t watch him suffer like we have. It feels so inhumane! Please tell me there is something else we can use.” I will never forget the words he said next. He said, “Sarah, there is nothing else. This is all there is to drain the bladder while Levi heals.” Then he jokingly said as he walked out the door, “If you want something different, you’re going to have to invent it.”

In that moment, a light bulb went off. There’s nothing a momma wouldn’t do for her baby, so I thought, “Well, I guess momma is going to invent something then.”

So I did.

I invented a device to replace the device we had been forced to use. On Levi’s 7th surgery of that year, we used the device I invented.  I remember waiting in the waiting room while Levi was in surgery praying that it would work. I was praying that my device would do its job and help my son. Levi’s urologist came out after surgery to update us on how everything went, and the first words out of his mouth were, “IT’S WORKING!!" The procedure that, in January, took Levi 2.5 weeks to heal from, suddenly only took one observation night in the hospital before going home. He healed beautifully from that procedure because of my invention. 

A New Goal
My original goal back in 2016 was to help my son.

But now, my goal has changed. Now I’m on a mission to help children all over the globe feel relief from pain and infection, to give them a chance to live more independently.

And I want to empower other mommas who might currently feel as helpless as I did.  

So far, we have developed the device, plus two others, to the point where we’ve built molds and gone through biocompatibility testing. The devices are now ready for humans, and we have partnered with a hospital for clinical trials in order to prove our device is better than the current standard. We start trials at the beginning of August 2019 and anticipate to be done between 6-9 months after that start date. Once trials are complete, we will be ready to get my devices in the hands of kids around the world. 

To complete the validation process of a medical device, it usually takes $5-$7 million  and 5-7 years to complete. We have been able to accomplish the majority of this process in 2 years time, and at just around $1 million. We are on the home stretch and need all the help we can get to finish strong. We currently need $50k to finish the rest of validation. But through gofundme, we are focused on raising the money we need to keep the well oiled machine running and moving forward. Your contribution would allow us to develop more patents and hire the best of the best lawyers to protect our devices and to pay for all the tweaks we will need to make during trials. 

Help us finish strong, so together, we can help children across the globe live lives with less pain and more independence. 

❤️,
The Levity Team