Medical help for Piper & family support

Story

Meet Piper and her family…  Piper Draper was your typical 5th grader in 2018. Piper loved learning, was good in school and was especially excited about her upcoming “big field trip” that 5th graders took every year to Texas. The kiddos were going to visit Sea World to study marine biology, go aboard an ocean research vessel to study sea life, visit the Alamo and spend the night on the USS Lexington. This science field trip was part of the 5th grade curriculum.  Piper was excited about life. She was funny, lighthearted and brought joy to her family and friends– but all that changed...so much so that Piper recently tried to taker her life.  This why I am asking for immediate help for Piper and her family.  Here's what happened:On that field trip, the bus driver lost control and crossed the lane of traffic, spun into a field, then took “faulty corrective action” causing the bus to cross back across the lanes and rolling over before hitting a fence. Piper was thrown 4 rows forward and to the opposite side of the school bus. She immediately lost consciousness and when she woke up, she was not only in horrible pain because of a broken shoulder, she woke up to screaming and crying classmates who were also bloodied and bruised.   Piper searched for her phone and called her mom Leslie, who immediately began driving to Texas. She was discharged to mom's care and the ER doctor told Leslie to get follow up care when they got back home. Over the next two weeks, Piper started to rapidly decline. She began falling a lot and acting strange. Her teacher commented on her behavior and Piper was having headaches, her balance was off, she lost her ability to read and her vision became blurry.  Piper was diagnosed with post concussive syndrome (a traumatic brain injury). This tragedy left Piper with severe PTSD, a panic disorder, major depressive disorder and severe anxiety. As you can only imagine, Piper is no longer the lighthearted child she was once. With the loss of her abilities to connect and communicate effectively, she’s also lost her confidence and her light.  The girl who was once playful and who could not hold in a laugh, now rarely even smiles. She is haunted with flashbacks of the bus crash and when she tries to sleep, she has nightmares of  her friends screaming for help, seeing their injured and bloody bodies.   It just became too much for this young girl to handle. Piper decided she didn’t want to live this way anymore. On August 30th, 2020, Piper cut her wrist in an effort to end her lie because suicide seemed the only option.   Finding mental health care for Piper has been incredibly difficult. Almost every mental health facility in Oklahoma turned Piper down because she has a traumatic brain injury. There are no resources in Oklahoma for children with PTSD and psychiatric issues from TBI. Piper needs to go out of state to receive appropriate care.  And I, and few of her close friends are hoping you will join us and become a Friend of Piper and her Family to help them heal.    Piper’s mother, Leslie, is the one holding down the family and it is too much for one person to handle.  She has been living with MS for more than 25 years and it was under control until, you guessed it…2018 when everything went wrong.  April 30th, 2018, Scott, her husband and Piper’s dad, suffered a work injury that caused major damage to his frontal lobe. Since then Scott also has been living with TBI (brain injury) and as a result he lost his job and is 100% disabled. He will never work, drive a car and can’t even manage his 20+ meds per day. Piper’s sister Avery is on the autism spectrum with ADHD, OCD and PTSD.   This all falls to Leslie's shoulders. Managing a brain injury for one person is a tremendous job, but Leslie, is caretaking both Piper and Scott’s TBI and this family could really use our help now.  Recently Leslie had to undergo major surgery but cannot even stop to heal properly because she is the sole caregiver for all of the family’s medical needs and the lone breadwinner.   Getting Piper help has been incredibly difficult. With Scott’s injury the family lost their health insurance and 65% of their income and Oklahoma law significantly limited what the injured children could recover. After Piper’s legal and medical bills were paid, she got a $12,000 trust fund from Norman Public Schools to cover the lifetime of medical care that she will need. Most of that is now gone to medical bills.  We would like to raise money to help Piper get into a proper recovery center and get the expert care and counseling she so deserves.  Leslie needs to stop and heal from her surgery and the family needs help meeting their basic needs right now. Leslie has been an angel to so many people, she once ran a thriving community church but can no longer.  You could often find her donating food and essentials to those in need during the pandemic. It is time for Leslie, Piper, Scott and Avery to receive the love they have always given.  I hope you will join me in raising money for their health needs. Our sister, our friend, Leslie and her family, Piper, Avery and Scott need our support now more than ever.