Give Leila the Christmas She Deserves

Hello. My name is Tori, and if you know me, this is not anything I would usually do, but I'm the mother of a beautiful 8-year-old girl, Leila Scott-Pennell, the best thing in my life. She's the most caring and selfless child I've ever seen.

On the Tuesday she got out for Thanksgiving break, she came home complaining of a rash on her feet and hand that I thought to be an allergic reaction. Well, after a trip to our local ER and a trip to our closest children's urgent care to see two doctors, we were told two different diagnoses and ended up with "it's a viral rash, monitor with Tylenol and follow up with her primary care."

Well, after taking her to her primary care, we ended up at Nationwide Children's ICU for a week, and Leila was in toxic shock from an infection that caused a rare inflammation response called Kawasaki disease. She spent most of the time in the hospital sedated to put in a central line for treatment of the toxic shock, Kawasaki disease, and strong antibiotics for sepsis, and to be on BiPAP to breathe. With God's good hands, my baby is home, but with me being in the hospital the entire time, I wasn't able to work and had to pay for tons of unforeseen expenses the pay period before Christmas.

With everything she just went through, I don't know how to give her the Christmas she deserves and pay the bills I need to so I'm asking for help with her Christmas. I know 400 is a lot to ask for a kids Christmas but gfm is taking 10% of all donations and this kid literally almost didn't see Christmas cuz her doctors passed her off without any proper testing so they could go home on time.