This is my niece Jozelyn and her mother Hailey. Next month, Jozelyn will be having a life-improving surgery. Although her medical expenses will be covered for the most part and they have a great support system in place, Hailey will be unable to work during this time. We all know being a single mother is tough and that bills pile up very quickly. To add to the expenses, they will also be moving. Jozelyn is one of the strongest, most resilient little girls. She is truly a miracle. Here is a little bit of her story.

Jozelyn was born 3 months early on 2/7/2020. I had to have a c-section with her, and after she was born, she opened her eyes for a split second, and the medical team had to immediately start resuscitating her. It took them about 15 minutes to bring her back to life. This caused her to have a grade 4 brain bleed on both sides of her brain. The doctors said she more than likely wouldn’t make it through the first 24 hours. When she did, they said she probably wouldn’t ever walk or talk. And she does both. At 2 weeks old, she had to have surgery to have a temporary reservoir placed to help drain the blood and alleviate the pressure on her brain. At 2 months old, she had another surgery to have a VP Shunt put in. Jozelyn came home from the NICU after 3 months on 5/17/2020. At about 6 months old, she started Physical Therapy because she was developmentally delayed, and she has been in therapy ever since.

Jozelyn has Cerebral Palsy. Her form of CP is called Spastic Diplegia. Her PM&R doctor said Jozelyn is the most perfect, ideal candidate for a specific surgery that can be performed to help her form of CP. The surgery is called a Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. Once in surgery, the surgeon can perform tests on her root nerve endings to find out which ones are bad and will cut out the bad nerve endings, leaving only the good ones. On January 15th, 2025, Jozelyn will be getting this procedure done. She’ll be in the hospital for 4-6 weeks after the surgery, and once she comes home, she will be in Physical Therapy 5 days a week. The recovery period for this surgery is about a year.

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