On Tuesday, October 7th, at about 7/7:30, Alayah Lee, my six-year-old little sister, was struck by a car. My sister, Chantel (17), was walking Alayah to her bus stop when a driver crossed into the wrong lane, came up onto the curb, and hit her. Chantel immediately went into action when she saw the car coming towards them. She tried to lift Alayah out of the way, but it was too late. From the impact of the car hitting her, she flew into the curb and was knocked unconscious. Chantel picked Alayah up, brought her into the grass, and started putting pressure on her head where she was bleeding. Chantel called 911, and both girls were transported to the Muskegon hospital. Soon after arriving, the doctors knew Alayah would need more than what they could provide, and she was transported to the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. Alayah was experiencing some respiratory failure, so she was placed on a ventilator. The doctors at Helen Devos told us that she would need emergency brain surgery. Her skull was fractured, and some of her brain was damaged and exposed. She was in surgery for over 4 hours. After surgery, the surgeon informed us that with her traumatic brain injury, she could have mobility issues on her left side of her body and face. Since her surgery, she has been in an induced coma. Right now, all of the focus is on keeping her brain swelling down. The next 3-5 days are peak times for her brain to continue swelling. She is also at high risk of a few different sickness and infections. So far, her vitals have been somewhat stable; however, since she is so sedated, they are limited in the testing they can do on her. Once they can start lowering the sedatives, they will be able to see what she is and is not able to do following her TBI.

Since this event, Chantel has developed a dramatic stutter she never had before. Starting Wednesday, she also developed a tic, which she had never experienced before. She is also experiencing pain on the right side of her body, which led us to assume she was also hit. She is very traumatized, and it's very difficult for her to even hold a conversation at the moment.

Alayah will stay in the ICU for at least another 5 days. From there, she will be moved to a lower level in the hospital until she is ready to be moved into rehab. She has a very long road to recovery ahead of her, and we will know a little more specifics once they can perform more testing after she is out of the red zone and her brain swelling is down.

My mother, a single mom of 4, has been approved for FMLA. She will have up to 12 weeks off from work unpaid. We have been made aware that the person who hit her does not have insurance, so she may be responsible for all of Alayah's medical bills. It also appears that the driver was under the influence; however, we are waiting for his blood result to come in to confirm. This GoFundMe is intended to help relieve some of the financial burden that our mom now has. Besides Alayah’s medical bills, we also need to make sure that her bills are still able to be paid (mortgage, groceries, gas, insurance premiums, etc.) Again, my mom is a single mother and the sole provider for the girls and their home. There will be no income coming in for a while. We are reaching out to others for help. We need to make sure that my mom doesn't lose her home in the midst of all this chaos. For anyone who is able to help, we truly appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. Most importantly, please keep Alayah and our family in your prayers.

I, Candy Mathews, am the oldest daughter of us four girls. While my mom is putting all of her attention and focus on Alayah, I will make sure to keep this page updated on Alayah’s recovery. Again, please keep Alayah in your prayers. Thank you in advance.