On October 20, 2015, my granddaughter, Serenity Ann-Elizabeth Hardman, was born. Within hours of her birth, she was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a condition where excess fluid builds up in the brain, and just before Christmas she underwent brain surgery to have a shunt placed to drain the excess fluid. Since then she has developed seizures and, recently, her parents were told that she is showing symptoms of cerebral palsy. She has a weak sucking reflex and must be fed in a very specific way. She has been hospitalized numerous times since her birth and a week doesn't go by that she doesn't have numerous appointments with neurologists, neurosurgeons, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy (for the swallowing), etc.
Her father, Jeremiah Hardman, is currently working two jobs (as a groundskeeper and a janitor), trying to support his tiny family. Her mother, Caitlin Hardman, in between taking Serenity to all of her appointments and caring for this special needs baby, has also been working part time in janitorial services. She has missed a lot of work as, everytime Serenity is hospitalized, she is required to stay with her as even the nurses aren't trained to feed her. As a part time employee she doesn't qualify for FMLA and just yesterday, her employer told her that if she missed anymore work due to the baby's hospitalizations, she would be fired. They applied to the Social Security Adminstration for SSI for Serenity and were turned down. They applied for Medicaid to cover her medical expenses within days of her birth, After nearly five months, her Medicaid application is still pending in the state of Kansas.
This family needs help. They are barely getting by and Caitlin, Serenity's mother, really needs to be at home with her baby. All funds collected will go to help support this family and care for their baby.

Update: Serenity has been diagnosed with an X linked genetic disorder that is extremely rare and considered an "orphan disease" called PDCD (pyruvase dehydrogenase complex deficiency). It is a metabloic disorder where she lacks the enzyme to fully break down carbohydrates. This results in a build up of lactic acid in her body which causes grave neurologic damage. It's the cause of all of the problems mentioned above. There is no cure and in almost all cases leads to a foreshortened life.