- J
We are Glauce Silva and Enrico Meier, the proud parents of Elise and Milena Meier.
Since June 7th 2024, just days after her 3rd birthday, (and a few weeks after my husband lost his job AND 4 days into my new job - after having been out of work for 7 years) our family has been living a nightmare. Milena, our miracle baby, conceived after 4 miscarriages, suffered a brain injury triggered by a febrile seizure (caused by cold/rotavirus).
Before this happened, she was:
- a sweet, active, and playful girl
- loved paddling in the swimming pool, kicking the ball, riding a scooter
- loved being at pre-school and engaging with other kids
- She loved taking a book, bringing it to the couch, sitting down, and reading.
- Loved being spun around and said “Nochmal”, which is German for again, to spin her again.
- loved playing with her sister, following her around the house, and watching what she did.
Milena spent 12 weeks at UCSF Oakland Hospital and Acute Rehab Since then, she has been to 7 intensive therapy programs all over the country and overseas, trying to recover her lost abilities (as of 03/2026).
We have a long way to go for Milena to get significantly better; at discharge in August 2024, we didn't know how long or how much struggle this would involve.
Milena's current needs (near-term goals):
- Improve cognition (not understanding certain concepts and things, sometimes years behind same-aged peers). Because of that, she is not able to understand and do things like bring the shoes or kick the ball.
- Improve processing speed and process more complex environments and tasks. She is still slow to process and react to the environment.
- Further reduce putting inedible things in her mouth and chewing on them, which is neurological, not directly treatable.
- Establish functional communication, gestures, and hopefully some words.
- Further improve the right arm/hand to have less jerky movement; better hand-eye coordination.
- Improve right-field and depth perception (CVI) because she is unable to see items on the floor or on her right. A lack of depth perception makes any climbing very challenging and slow.
- Further improve balance and body awareness, to maybe be able to ride a bike and scooter.
- Milena requires constant supervision. We do not have relatives who could come by and help us out.
Based on conversations with medical professionals, Milena is still in a critical window (2years), as this injury is still relatively recent and she is at such a young age. Receiving as much beneficial therapy and treatment is crucial to not only improve and regain abilities now, but also what she will be capable of later in life. That is why we focus more on therapies in 2026 and know better what to focus on and what helps, based on talking to so many professionals and parents this year and our research.
Your support helps us give Milena the best chance at recovery.
All donated funds will be used solely for Milena's therapy and treatment.
Milena has been and continues working hard to make all this progress, always trying, never giving up or resisting.
Funds needed ~35,000 for 2026 (included in goal) because of the lack of insurance coverage for:
- Neurostimulation with PEMF and PBM (long-term), which helps train her brain to process information more effectively and supports recovery of affected functions.
- MNRI Reflex Integration (intensive program), which normalizes disrupted reflexes to improve body movement and support functional gains.
- CIMT (intensive program), targeted therapy to improve the right hand/arm by temporarily immobilizing the left arm/hand.
- Speech/communication therapist (long term), to regain communication and speech, the in-network therapists do not have experience with kids who have brain injury, or are not available.
- Physical Therapist (long term) who is local and will be working on balance and functional tasks. The previous PT is now out-of-network and a long drive away.
- Various tailored intensive and play-based therapy programs to help with cognition, vision, body awareness, and motor skills development.
- Stem Cell (intensive program), multiple stem cell injections combined with additional therapy and treatment, to improve cognition, fine and gross motor skills, and possibly vision.
The most expensive is Stem Cell treatment, in the 10s of 1000s. We would not have known this actually is beneficial if we had not met a family at an intensive program that did it and had significant success with it. And also reached out to another family that did stem cell treatment at the same treatment facility.
Each of the other therapies listed costs also 1000’s over the course of a year.
We have seen significant progress, and see that the right methods and intensive therapy are required.
What has improved since hospital discharge, through therapies and changes mentioned, thanks to your generous donations:
- Went from barely walking, holding on to the wall, to walking normally and freely, and she can even almost run now.
- The right arm and hand went from no use to being functional, although limited, and she actually initiates use, but there is still a lot more work and work on hand-eye coordination needed.
- Has more body awareness.
- Shows being interested in play and other kids
- Started to play purposely and "appropriately" with a couple of toys
- Reduction of drooling and sensory needs - brings fewer non-edible items in the mouth.
- Able to eat and drink (mouth muscle and swallowing improvement), but still needs to be supervised and paced.
- Went from grunting and moaning to vocalizing syllables, some babbling.
- She started being more herself, acting in some way like she was before.
We deeply appreciate any help, whether through donations or other support. Please reach out if you can assist in any way.
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You can Venmo us directly at @GlauceNS and contact us for Zelle info, for no transaction fee deduction.
GoFundMe charges the same processing/transaction fee of around 2.9% regardless of payment method, including ACH bank transfer.
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We remain hopeful and grateful for the support that has helped Milena make such progress. Every contribution brings her closer to recovery.
With love and appreciation, Milena's family.