Clarissa’s Family Medical support

This my great-niece Clarissa. She is a charismatic, bubbly 4 year old that has beaten all the odds against her. At 3 months, Clarissa’s parents were given the devastating news that she had suffered a substantial stroke at birth, destroying her frontal left lobe. Since the initial diagnosis of Porencephaly, Clarissa has been diagnosed with Hydrocephalus, right Sided Spastic diplegia Cerebral Palsy and severe drug resistant epilepsy. Clarissa’s brain “misfires” every 20 seconds when awake and every 5 seconds when she is asleep. This results in daily seizures, memory problems and cognitive decline.

After years of significant medical tests and plans, they have had to make the decision to preserve their daughter’s brain with a hemispherectomy. This is a very radical surgery that will be removing the damaged portions of her brain. This will be her second brain surgery, will take 6-8hrs and will require 2 weeks in hospital and at least 6-12 weeks in a live-in rehabilitation facility. The decision has been made knowing that Clarissa will wake up paralyzed on her right side with no guarantee that she will make a full recovery. The hope is that with intense physical therapy and rehabilitation she may be able to get her back to where she is today, like any child being able to walk, run, go to school and attend her much loved ballet and baton classes.

This surgery will essentially be a cure for her epilepsy. If not an absolute cure, it will significantly reduce her risk of seizures which are occurring multiple times daily and help prevent further damage. This surgery gives her the best opportunity to grow up, learning and retaining what she learns.

We are raising funds as this young family, (including new baby sister Senna who can’t be away from mommy!) need a bit of back-up in housing assistance. We’re hoping to raise enough to keep them all within close proximity of each other during their 3 months away from home and help ease the financial strain associated with having a child in hospital, while still needing to maintain their residence in Ajax.