Mom of family suffers facial paralysis & stroke

Hi, My name is Leo Duarte and I’m helping my older sister Xochitl Laursen who on March 10 went into surgery to remove tumors and suffered a stroke at the end of surgery.

Xochitl is a 26 year old woman with 2 kids , Uriah (6) and Paytin (3) & her husband Joshua who currently serves in the US Army and is currently deployed in Kuwait away from his family. They are originally from Livermore, CA. & are currently stationed at Fort Carson, CO.

The entirety of this situation Xochitl had been pursuing a major surgery for a facial nerve Schwanomma that was on her main facial nerve on the left hand side, along with 2 other tumors on another nerve in the same general area. They all were extremely painful & affecting her ability to do basic day to day things with her children. The surgery was predicted to be 6 hours and she was only supposed to have the tumor removed as much as possible with minor facial paralysis (if it happened ) and if it did the doctors had high hopes of it eventually getting better if not fully going away.

The day of surgery Xochitl went in with high hopes of her surgery going as planned.

As the surgery went on , the doctors found that the tumor had affected much more than they predicted. The tumor had eroded her bone in that area and was far much more advanced and unfortunately doctors had to remove the entire facial nerve leaving her with permanent facial paralysis on the left side of her face. Towards the end of surgery Xochitl also suffered a stroke that when she woke up from surgery her entire left side of her body was non responsive. Xochitl was put on stroke alert multiple times while being in the hospital.

As she begins a long recovery. She already has come a long way.

Xochitl requires Neurotherapy, PT for her arms as she can not fully extend them, & eating and speech therapy with Psych therapy for this has been a life changing event to happen and all taking place an hour away from her home in Aurora, CO.

Anything contributed would help pay for an extra things insurance may not have covered , as well for gas as it’s an hour away for all her follow up appts and therapy sessions. This will also be a contribution that once Xochitl heals that if she wishes to pursue any other surgery to possibly help her facial paralysis. We would love to help her regain her smile in anyway we can because she has always been the one to light up a room as she walks in.