Support for Olivia: Spinal Cord Stroke Survivor

On the morning of December 9, 2024, 11 year old Olivia Grace was standing in the kitchen when she felt sudden weakness and pain starting in her thighs and quickly descending to her calves and feet. Within a matter of hours, she was unable to walk and had minimal to no feeling in parts of legs and feet.

After admission and stays at a few different hospitals, it was discovered that Olivia suffered a rare spinal cord stroke resulting in a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Her paralysis level is a T8 Incomplete. Essentially that means that everything below the eighth thoracic vertebra (roughly the middle of the back) is affected.

Olivia, with the help of her Mom and medical team, is now learning to live her life as a paraplegic and wheelchair user, as well as understand what her diagnosis means for her body, what to be vigilant about, and what to continuously work on for physical strength, mobility, sensation, and mental health. She's motivated and working hard, while processing the emotions from this traumatic life event.

Spinal Cord Strokes make up roughly 1% of all strokes, with pediatric spinal cord strokes occurring even less frequently.

[Source: Caton MT, Huff JS. Spinal Cord Ischemia. (Updated 2023 Aug 14)]

There is an estimated ~300,000 people living with Spinal Cord Injuries and around ~18,000 new injuries each year in the United States.

[Source: National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center]

The estimated lifetime costs for expenses directly attributable to SCIs at Olivia's level is ~$3 Million for someone whose injury began at 25 years of age. Olivia is 11 years old which means those costs increase. These costs do not include indirect costs (i.e., wages, productivity).

[Source: National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center]

Insurance pays for a lot of the medical care and assistive equipment, however there is a lot that insurance does not cover.

Special grants are sometimes available but not all those in need are awarded financial help. For those who are, the funds are often capped in order to help as many people as possible.

Some costs that are not fully covered by insurance or grants (or at all):

We are blessed to have a supportive and strong community, friends, and family who have reached out to help with meals, gifts, physical help, and kinds words of support since this all began in December.

As we are still in the beginning stages of adjusting to a new way of life, we are asking for your help in raising funds to help with Olivia's ongoing care. All funds will be placed in a special account that will only be used for such needs.

Any amount given, no matter how small, is a blessing to our family. If you can not donate at this time, it's ok! We are also asking people to share this page far and wide however you see fit.

Stay tuned for a more informative website coming soon that will be dedicated to things like Olivia & family's journey, information about Spinal Cord Strokes and Spinal Cord Injuries, and eventually some resources for others in similar positions as us, who are swimming in a sea of hard-to-navigate and overwhelming information.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Much love,

Kat, Olivia, Alex, Suki, and Haiden ❤️