This is our daughter, Oona. She is two years old. Oona sustained a traumatic brain injury at birth due to lack of oxygen which resulted in seizures and an epilepsy diagnosis, as well as a moderate visual impairment. She is on medication to control her seizures but this does not eliminate them completely.  She is still prone to seizures when fighting an illness or simply overtired. To further complicate matters, these events tend to occur nocturnally, making independent sleep a risk.

Each seizure event means a trip to our local hospital and a transfer to Boston Children’s Hospital. As amazing as the environment and the staff at Children’s is, a hospital stay is always frightening and draining, both emotionally and energetically. Seizures are very disorienting even for adults; you don’t remember having one. It is harder still to explain to a toddler why she is waking up somewhere that is clearly not her bed, and why she is hooked up to multiple leads and IV lines. It is scary for her to wake up this way, and then to spend a day or two in the hospital where she has no control over her body and very little in the way of familiar comforts.


This is why we are now seeking a service dog that will act as emotional support for Oona’s  in her daily life and work towards providing alerts to any seizure events that may occur. We are so fortunate to be connected to Brigitte Deitz, the owner of Fox Hill Farm, and her associate, Taylor Mellinger. They will help us train a dog who will hopefully provide potentially life-saving seizure alerts. Oona’s seizures are most dangerous to her at night when, even while she is monitored, a seizure may silently occur and go unchecked. She has had focal seizures in the past that from a distance would be indistinguishable from a deep sleep. Seizures are damaging when they are able to run on for several minutes. A seizure assistance dog would learn to notify us immediately to a seizure even if the entire house is asleep at the time, allowing timely administration of a seizure-disrupting medication. In addition to this crucial service, this dog would provide a grounding presence for Oona at her many doctors’ appointments and in environments that are aurally or visually overwhelming. The service dog would be able to provide emotional comfort and deep pressure snuggles to help her navigate places that would otherwise be too much to process. This is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the role of a service dog as Oona approaches preschool age and a more crowded classroom setting. 


We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such well-established trainers in our community. Oona’s service dog will have incredible educational opportunities over the course of its life and we would get to be a part of every step! It is not commonplace for dogs to naturally alert to a seizure; this skill takes extensive training. We consider the significant investment a worthy one, however. A service dog could make a huge impact on Oona’s life. But we need your help to make this a reality. On top of the cost of the dog itself, we need to pay for extensive service dog training. We expect this cost to be about $6,000 in the first year. We are so grateful to friends and family who have supported us since Oona was born. Thank you so much for your generous donation!