Loving Liv
Olivia "Liv" is a 17 year old young lady who has epilepsy. She is currently at NYU Hospital with her mother, Brooke.
Her mother, Brooke, is a nurse at Maine Medical Center. Both Liv and Brooke are extremely involved with volunteering in the Epilepsy Foundation New England (EFNE). Liv has taken part in a lot of the camps and other programs that EFNE has offered and she has made a lot of friends through these programs. Liv and Brooke have championed for other epilepsy families in Maine. They never thought twice about helping other families. When a crucial new law was going to be voted on, about stopping insurance companies to use "step therapy" as an option on dictating the ability to decide on medications, both Brooke and Liv testified and shared their story with Maine.
https://www.mainepublic.org/post/state-bill-addressing-step-therapy-could-give-patients-more-control-over-their-treatment
Liv and her mother Brooke traveled to NYU in May so Liv could receive surgery to hopefully stop her seizures. Liv had a successful surgery with her skilled team at NYU 3 years ago and Liv had become seizure free. Unfortunately, a few month ago, the seizures had come back and continued to disrupt and become life-threatening to Liv. Liv wanted her life back and she was told that another surgery would stop her seizures. Both Brooke and Liv traveled to NYU Hospital for the final surgery. Liv underwent two weeks of cranial monitoring and mapping to find the exact location of the seizures. Once her team was confident they had located the section of the brain, that was causing the issues, Liv went into surgery. Both Liv and Brooke were told that the surgery would have minimal risks from it.
Unfortunately, Liv's surgery did not go as planned. These are Brooke's, Liv's mom, words.
"It’s taken a few days for me to start to process what’s happened. Liv’s surgery on Tuesday went as expected. The inter-cranial grids were removed and seizure focal areas resected. Because of where one of these areas was located, we knew there was a chance of mild to moderate left sided arm and leg weakness which they said would fully resolve within a few weeks to a few months. Tuesday night, Liv wasn’t waking up after the surgery. All day Wednesday, she remained minimally responsive. Wednesday evening her MD said he still “hoped” she would recover, but they didn’t understand why she wasn’t waking up. Thursday AM, thank goodness she finally started to respond. We learned her left side was completely paralyzed, including her face, mouth and tongue. When awake’ish, she would speak 1-2 words at a time which were completely slurred. She was unable to chew/swallow so a feeding tube was inserted.I n the last 3 days, she’s made good progress but her doctors say she has a “long road ahead”. She can now wiggle the 2 big toes of her left foot and slightly bend her knee, but she still has no movement at all in her left arm, shoulder and face. She’s staying awake for longer periods of time. She’s completely oriented. She’s started PT and OT, and they have been able to transfer her from the bed to a bedside chair for an hour/day the past 2 days. She’s started speech therapy, and she was able to eat a few bites of mashed potatoes with lots of butter last night. Her speech has become more intelligible, though limited. She remains in ICU. At this point, no one knows how long her recovery will be or what things will look like when we come home. I do know she will be transferred to inpatient rehabilitation here at the NYU Rusk Institute when medically able. Please continue to send well wishes and prayers... she needs them."
Brooke will be with Liv and her focus should be taking care of her. 
Brooke will need to take care of Liv and stay with her in NY. We are friends of Brooke and Liv and we are asking for the community to help such a caring and amazing family. Brooke is an incredible mother who gives to everyone. Please reach down and give whatever you can to help this family.
Thank you,
Kristine Binette and Peg Mitschelle