The Clarks

Hi everyone!  My sister and her little family recently have been under a tremendous amount of stress due to a medical life threatening illness that affected her daughter. My sister and brother in law just recently bought there first home just weeks prior to this, here’s there story..

Almost 3 weeks ago Peyton spiked a 105 fever that immediately scared us so we took her to the emergency room. She also had a little bit of a rash on her torso area and some UTI symptoms. We assumed that it was most likely a UTI but wanted to be safe. They did a few tests on her and thought it could also be strep because of the rash and fever. They did a throat swab and that came back negative. They ended up giving her an antibiotic and discharging her from the emergency room and said she had a UTI and most likely something viral. Over the next day her symptoms worsened. Her rash became more apparent, she started having diarrhea, and now she was vomiting. I brought her to her pediatrician and she was admitted to the hospital for dehydration. While at the hospital her symptoms started to worsen. Her amazing pediatrician decided to actually do a strep test through the blood and that came back positive. She was then put on IV antibiotics but her symptoms still continued to worsen in the hospital. After the third day in the hospital we asked for a transfer to Comers Children’s hospital (University of Chicago) and that’s where we have been ever since. By the time Peyton had gotten to Comer’s, her lungs, kidneys, liver, and GI system had been affected by the strep inside her body. She had bilateral pleural effusions, enlarged liver, an ileus, and decreased kidney function. Multiple organ systems had been affected by this horrible infection. She was put into the Pediatric intensive care unit where she received a blood transfusion, immunoglobulins, tons of antibiotics, fluids, and a PICC line was put in. The infectious disease doctor explained to us that she had a strep infection that started in her lungs that had turned into a staph infection that released toxins into her body that were affecting her different organ systems. She had toxic shock syndrome (a very rare but life threatening condition). There is nothing she did wrong and there was nothing that we could have done to prevent it, it was just bad luck. We spent 17 nights trying to sleep on chairs/couches staring at the monitors Peyton was hooked up to praying to God that she would recover from this. Most nights I just laid there thinking of how I could have prevented this or what we did wrong to deserve this. She sure as hell didn’t deserve any of this. What did we miss? How come there weren’t more signs? Although, she is recovering very well, she has a long road ahead of her. She is my absolute hero. She has been through more than any 8 year old should ever have to go through in a lifetime. This trying time has brought our families closer than ever and have brought Kyle and I closer to God. I have never been so scared of losing something in my life and to watch her lying in that bed still so beautiful but still so helpless, killed me and I wish I could have traded her spots. The image of her with so much fear in her eyes looking at me asking if she was going to die will NEVER leave my mind and that’s something I wish no parent will ever have to go through. I am not sure what would have happened if we never stuck to our instinct and had her transferred to this amazing hospital that has helped her start her journey to recovery.

Im just asking for donations for them, any amount would be greatly appreciated to help them with this financial burden, with medical bills already coming in and with them still trying to settle into their new home and both of them having to miss work, I know they would never ask for any help financially, so I’m asking for them. 

❤️❤️❤️