Millie's Recovery

My name is Woody Vaughan and I am fundraising on behalf of my niece, Millie Baldwin and her two parents April Baldwin and Phillip Baldwin. On the afternoon of April 5th, 2023 Millie was in a horseback riding accident and knocked unconscious. She was rushed to Egleston Children's Hospital by ambulance as her parents April and Phillip waited with her in the ER and through the night to see if she would regain consciousness. Thankfully Millie's friend, who was riding with her, happened to be filming Millie. This video was shown to the doctors so they could see exactly what happened in order to access her injury and know how to treat her.

Millie has been riding and racing horses, barrel racing specifically, for many years. The video showed Millie and her horse rounding a barrel and as they did, the horse tripped on its front feet. Before Millie could react, the horse tumbled over onto her, rolling all the way over to its other side leaving Millie lifeless.

The ER doctors and nurses performed all kinds of tests and scans. Remarkably, there were not any fractured or broken bones.

The following morning Millie woke up for a few seconds and fell back into unconsciousness. This continued for brief moments throughout the day which was comforting and an answer to many prayers. All the while her parents waited in anticipation of what condition she would be left in and what the future would hold.

Over the next few days, the doctors and nurses continued to test and monitor her and it was determined Millie had suffered a traumatic brain injury...specifically a diffuse axonal injury, which is the tearing/sheering of the brain's nerve fibers. Injuries to the brain are catagorized in the following order: concussion, traumatic brain injury: mild, traumatic brain injury: moderate, and traumatic brain injury: severe. Millie's injury was diagnosed as a moderate traumatic brain injury. It was too early to tell how well she would recover and the amount of therapy she would need, but for now she would continue her stay in the hospital to continue evaluating and determining her improvements. Millie had physical signs of blurry vision and seeing double, issues with movement of her left arm, balancing while walking, and the ability to speak clearly. She was also having trouble creating words and sentences.

After two weeks, they moved her to Scottish Rite Hospital to be admitted in the Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (CIRU). This is an inpatient program that provides intensive therapy 7 days a week, including PT, OT, and Speech Therapy. Both of her parents were able to continue to stay with her to encourage, motivate and learn about her injury and progress. Millie has now been released from the hospital and is participating in Scottish Rite's Outpatient Day Rehab Program where she receives intensive therapies 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I am asking anyone willing to help assist them with paying for their medical costs. They have a $7500 deductible and once met, medical bills are paid 100%. However, insurance will only pay a limited number of therapies each year. After that, all of Millie's therapies will be out of pocket. Money raised would also assist with their out of pocket costs for money spent the past month on food due to living out of the hospital as well as costs moving forward. Thank you in advance for assistance in helping them. If you have any questions please email me.