Gemma Grace's Medical Fund

Gemma is a sweet, happy baby girl who unfortunately didn’t get the best start at life and has had to face a lot in the first year of her life. Gemma was born testing positive for cocaine and was immediately placed in CPS’ care for the first 3 ½ months of her life and lived with her cousins (Brandon & Dawn) along with her biological mother in a supervised environment. At the end of the 3 ½ months CPS gave the ok for Gemma and her mother to return to their home and get a fresh start at raising this precious baby. Unfortunately that didn’t go as planned and in January 2015 Gemma was placed back in CPS’ care on what they call “parental placement” and was once again placed with Brandon & Dawn. Little did the family know at the time, her life was changed forever. The family could immediately tell something was wrong with Gemma and this wasn’t the baby that had been sent home almost two months before.  In April of 2015 Gemma was permanently removed from her biological parents and they relinquished their rights to Brandon & Dawn. Once rights were relinquished, Brandon & Dawn began the adoption process with Gemma and started running many tests to find out what was wrong with her. Thankfully they were able to get her into Cook’s Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth with a neurologist who has been great to them. Gemma was just diagnosed with what is called Bilateral Perisylvian Polymicrogyria (BPSP). This is a rare brain malformation where part of the brain did not form correctly during utero. This is probably a result from the drug use during pregnancy.  The part of the brain that controls motor skills is not formed causing partial paralysis of the face, throat, tongue, etc. It is also effecting her arms, hands, and legs. Doctors are saying that she may never be able to eat normally, walk, talk, go to a regular school, be employed, live on her own or have kids. Basically they are telling them her quality of her life just might not be great. She will have to have a swallow test done in the near future due to choking which is a dangerous part of this disease and they are thinking she has dysphagia. The results from the swallow test will determine if they will have to put a G-Tube in her and if surgery will be needed to help resolve this issue. For those who don't know what dysphagia is, it is typically caused by a disease and therefore Gemma has trouble swallowing which causes her to aspirate easily, even on her own spit. Gemma is also at high risk for seizures due to this disease. Doctors have said that therapy will be her best friend for the rest of her life. Thankfully she has been in therapy for 3 months already and her therapists are great with her. Gemma is going to need lots of medical equipment (i.e. special needs bath chair and stroller) in the near future which are all extremely expensive. Not to mention the travel to appointments in Fort Worth and medical expenses that will come with a G-tube or any other tests that will have to be run on this sweet baby girl. Gemma is a trooper and has an entire army storming the gates of heaven with prayers for her. We pray she will move mountains and prove the doctors wrong. If you would like to keep up with Gemma’s progress and specific prayer needs please go like her facebook page “Prayer Warriors for Gemma” (https://www.facebook.com/PrayersforGemma). Even if you can’t donate anything the family covets your prayers for our Sweet Gemma.