Annie's Benefit Auction
Jenn Lund, a senior high student at our church, has organized a benefit auction for Annie's ongoing therapy. The auction is going to be on Friday, January 23, from 7-9 PM at Northlake Christian Church. If you click on the link at left, you can get all the details.
As most of you know, our daughter, Annie, sustained a catastrophic hypoxic brain injury on January 21, 2007, when she was 3 ½ years old. So we're coming up on the two year anniversary. This crisis happened at night, while she slept, and was a result of undiagnosed Addison’s disease. Addison’s Disease is also known as adrenal insufficiency, when the adrenal glands cannot mount an effective fight against infection, stress, or injury. In Annie’s case, the cause of her adrenal insufficiency is not known. An Addisonian crisis causes a precipitous drop in blood pressure and blood insulin that can result in seizures, coma and death.
By God’s grace Annie’s life was saved, but not before much of her brain had been affected. She was in a coma for about a week, on a ventilator for 5 days, and in the hospital for 52 days. She lost the ability to walk, talk, eat, and use her hands and arms. Her cognitive level has regressed to about 12 months. Fortunately, her eyesight, hearing, and swallowing were preserved. Her smile came back after 1 year, and her speech has begun to emerge after almost 2 years.
Contrary to the widely held assumption that the brain injury recovery process ends after 1 or 2 years, recent studies have shown that people can make significant functional improvements for at least 10 years post-injury. We believe that with intensive physical and cognitive therapy, Annie can relearn to walk and talk, and regain her ability to eat real food. She responds quickly to repetitive training—such as learning how to scoot down the stairs—something she mastered over Christmas vacation!
As you might imagine, the cost of physical, occupational, feeding and cognitive therapy is quite expensive, and is only partially covered by insurance. We are just now beginning to get a grasp on how to navigate through all the politics in accessing funding for the therapy that she needs to make functional gains. Unfortunately, the insurance industry is reluctant to support the long-term therapy needs of people affected by brain injury, and getting them to pay for what Annie needs is an ongoing, uphill battle.
We are so grateful to Jenn and her huge team of volunteers who are busy making this auction happen, and we'd like to invite all of you to come too.