Medical Fund for Izzy

My name is Sam and I am reaching out to our community, friends, and family for assistance in supporting my sister (Moira) as she navigates a difficult time with her family. My niece Isabelle (Izzy) is in the hospital receiving treatment and as a single parent with four girls, my sister is understandably struggling to keep their boat afloat as they learn more information about Izzy's recovery.

For those of you who may not know her, Izzy was born with DiGeorge Syndrome (or 22q11.2 deletion syndrome), which is a disorder in which a small part of chromosome 22 is missing. This deletion results in the poor development of several body systems and has caused Izzy to require a lot of specialized care since birth. Izzy suffers from a variety of psychological and physical issues as a result of her diagnosis, but up until recently she has been making progress.

Over the last few weeks Izzy began to decline cognitively and physically. We are learning more every day but she is currently admitted in the hospital for a variety of health issues, including catatonia, hallucinations, and infection. She is also fighting a case of both COVID and Strep at the moment on top of it all. Her care team is working to get her physical ailments under control while working on her psychological recovery.

We are not sure what recovery will entail at this point, but my sister anticipates needing to be with Izzy often, while also managing the other 3 girls, their needs, and their finances. We hope that you will consider donating so that Moira can have some space to breathe, and plan what is next for them.

Understandably, everyone is a bit overwhelmed and taking one day at a time. Moira asks for your patience in getting back to friends with updates. Thank you however, for all the outpouring of support so far.

Thanks everyone!

[Update 9/18/2023]

Thank you to everyone who has donated and for the outpouring of support and kind words. Understandably, Moira is overwhelmed, but Izzy is doing a bit better. Below is an update as of today.

On Thursday of last week, Izzy was discharged from the hospital. Last week she received treatment for a variety of infections including COVID and Strep, but also received treatment for her Catatonia. She responded well to a new medication and was able to increase her alertness by the end of the week. However, Izzy's medical team is still working on better understanding what mental support needs she may need. In addition to having developmental delays, OCD, and ADHD and DiGeorge Syndrome, Izzy has been diagnosed for the time being with unspecified Schizophrenia. She continues to struggle with hallucinations and a variety of unsafe behaviors. As a result, she is not yet able to attend school (although we are working on increasing the amount of support she receives at school) and is requiring a lot of adult supervision and support. She has additional consult appointment scheduled with psychiatry as well as neurology but as you know, the medical system often has long wait-lists and it will be at least a month until Izzy can be seen. Until then, she will continue to get her intensive in-home services.

As you can imagine, this has been incredibly difficult to manage for Moira. She has not been able to work for two weeks, and so we are continuing to ask for your support. She is so thankful for all the support she has received so far (which has helped to pay for some pressing bills) and for the people who have physically stepped in to help clean, watch the kids as she runs back and forth to the hospital, and the many other small kindnesses we've experienced these past two weeks. We are looking into options of having a health aid come to the house and support Moira so that she can get back to work (and school) and support the other three girls too. Please if you can, donate and share this post with your circles. We are still learning more about what Izzy will need, and in the time being trying to stabilize the family as we navigate these needs.

We will share more updates as we know more! Take care and thank you all so much!