Brooklynn Carignan (Nick and Monica's daughter)

On August 10th, 2023, the worst happened to the Carignan Family - their six-year old child, Brooklynn, went into anaphylactic shock from accidental ingestion of cow's milk. She has a known allergy to dairy, peanuts, and tree nuts. Even after 2 rounds of administering her home epi pens, she needed to be rushed to the nearest emergency room via ambulance. She became unresponsive and cyanotic (blue) on the way to the hospital. Her body was completely limp and appeared lifeless as she arrived at the hospital. Only having less than 2 minutes to prepare, the trauma team was thankfully ready to go; she was immediately intubated, IV medications were administered, and cardiac monitors were hooked up. It took over 4 hours to get her stable enough to then be carefully airlifted to Mott's Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. She was directly admitted to the Pediatric ICU for 3 days. Brooklynn was able to wake up on her own and be safely extubated the next day. Thankfully, she appeared to neurologically intact and did not have any rebound reactions. The trauma team at St. Mary's Hospital said if another minute went by without intervention the outcome would have been fatal. Needless to say, it was the worst, scariest time of their lives.

After arriving home from the hospital and realizing they almost lost their only daughter, Brooklynn's parents, Nick and Monica, decided they never want anything like that to happen ever again. They also don't want to continue to live a life of uncertainty and life long avoidance, especially since dairy is in everything!

They soon heard about a place in Southern California called the Food Allergy Institute. They offer a Tolerance Induction Program to help those overcome food allergies. It starts with extensive diagnostic testing to capture how the immune system operates. It then identifies biosimilar proteins which are proteins similar to those in their allergens. This helps retrain the immune system and safely build tolerance one protein at a time. Once their immune system is accustomed to those biosimilar proteins, they can begin to "challenge" their allergens in increasing amounts until complete tolerance is achieved. The ultimate goal is remission where they regain confidence and live a life with endless opportunities without the fear of food allergies.

It is a very long, tedious program with life changing results. However, it is also quite costly without insurance. Nick and Monica's health insurance does not cover any of the costs since it is considered out-of-network. The "challenges" require Brooklynn to go to California every 10-12 weeks until remission is achieved which could take a few years.

Please consider helping this family by making a donation. Any amount, big or small, will help. They will be faced with frequent travel expenses, annual program costs, and medical bills from the previous hospital stay.

Nick and Monica were hesitant to agree to this Go-Fund Me because they are usually the ones helping others. Nick is a full time firefighter, Monica is a nurse, and they own a CrossFit gym together. They have 3 beautiful young children, 2 of whom have special needs. So helping people is an everyday thing for them.

But now, they need our help.

Thank you for taking the time and consideration to help this precious family.