Erica Sarver
As writen by Erica's mother:
Erica was a perfectly normal little girl that was walking, talking,
stairs, everything she should have been doing for her age. Then she
went for her 1yr physical and got her shots 1 day after her 1st b-day
and we didn’t notice any changes until 3-17-06 when we went
back to grandpa's b-day party! Erica was acting fine, even eating
a cheeseburger and cereal on our way down there. Erica started acting
like she was tired about 530pm so I laid her down for a nap. We would
check on her every so often just as normal and she was fine. Then
I needed to leave to take my brother to get his car just about 5 min
away so I told Tim (my husband) that I was leaving and Erica should
be awake soon. I gave her a kiss good bye and left. Then I got a phone
call on my cell saying Erica was seizing and was taken to the ER in
town. She had a fever of 107 in the ER. I was shocked because I just
checked on her and she was fine! When I got to the ER she was being
treated and they were trying to get life flight to take her to Des
Moines to the Blank Children’s Hospital. Life flights were tied
up with other calls. Erica’s seizure lasted about 2hrs. They
intubated her there at the ER after she threw up and then aspirated.
She then developed pneumonia. When we got to Blank, Tim and I thought
we were just dealing with pneumonia and seizures. We have dealt with
seizures before because our oldest daughter had seizures but has outgrown
them now.
Then on 3-19-06 the Drs came in and told us her liver enzymes were dangerously high and they were going to life flight her off to Omaha for a possible liver transplant! We were so scared and still wondering what happened! When we got to Omaha they were running more tests trying to find a cause for Erica’s high fever. A couple days later the liver team said her enzymes were going back down so she didn’t need a liver transplant. We thought she was going to be fine again until on 3-22-06 the Drs told us that Erica’s brain was swelling to the point of herniation. Her eyes were not responding to light anymore. Erica was still on the ventilator and they sedated her to put her in a coma, so her condition was already critical and this didn’t look good they said. We were told that night she probably wouldn’t make it through the night and if she did she would probably be a vegetable. We baptized her and called family and friends up because we didn’t know what was going to happen! 2hrs after the Drs told us this news Erica starts to open her eyes and is getting her reflexes back! It was a miracle! The Drs didn’t understand how Erica was awake and improving. She was still very critical and we still don’t know what caused all of this but she’s fighting!! After this the Drs said that they are just going to see what happened because they couldn’t figure her out! After a very long 2wks in Omaha, they transported her back to Blank for rehab and so we could be closer to our other kids. We have 3 other kids, Kylie 10, Emma 5, Ben 3 and we missed them very much. While at Blank, Erica started therapies and was off the ventilator but was having withdrawal really bad so we had to get that managed. That was a very long 2wks, it was so hard to watch your little girl cry and go through this. Then after the withdrawal was done she was having neuro storms. She would run fevers and posture and cry for hours and hours. They put on Thoraxine and Bromocriptine and Tylenol to help, and every couple days she would need more meds. She finally got up to the maxed out dosages on the meds. As soon as we got her meds under control she starts doing better in therapy and relaxing. She was still very stiff and it was so hard to hold her because she was extended all of the time. She was so uncomfortable. They would give her Adivan to help relax her so she could sleep. Finally, it got to a point that the NG feeding tube was going to have to go and they wanted to put a G tube in because of her vomiting. They did this in April. She has had problem with her feedings this whole time even after the G tube.
The Drs are still running more tests and have come up with nothing. They are repeated CTs and MRIs all the time and have come to the conclusion that Erica has suffered severe brain injury from hypoxia due to the seizure, but they don’t know anything else. We still don’t know what happened, every theory has a ‘but" to it. Reyes Syndrome has been discussed and also a reaction from the vaccines she got. This is what we are leaning towards now because they have ran every test for metabolic and nothing, viruses and bacterias and nothing, biopsies and nothing, we are still waiting for the skin biopsy to get back, so they continue to run more tests.
Erica is improving now she was discharged from the hospital on 5-23-06 and we have therapy in home. She is starting to bare weight on her legs and arms a little bit and she makes babble noises. She is sleeping really well now. We are getting her off the meds and noticing a great deal of improvement on her awareness. We feel that she is at about a 3-4mos stage now and she needs as much help as we can give her and if the hyperbaric and therapy can help the price doesn’t matter. We just want our little girl back. Any donations would be greatly appreciated!
Thank You Tim and Joanna Sarver
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