Private Placement Content

paws4prisons_TM and the SlammerDogZ_TM Program is proud to announce the selection of Amanda, a three-year old, who suffers from Infantile Spasms, a form of catastrophic epilepsy presented in infancy, as a Private Placement Candidate.

Amanda was selected as a Private Placement Candidate [PPC] on June 9, 2007.

Amanda's Story
A Long Version

Amanda is currently scheduled to receive her Service Dog in Aug 2008, from the class of dogs currently undergoing training at USP - Hazelton

Amanda had a stroke while she was still in the uterus. The stroke was hemorrhagic in nature so it impacted a great deal of the left side of her brain and some of the right side. The fact that she survived the stroke itself amazed her doctors. She spent no time in the ICU after birth and was sent home after a few days with the expectation of doing well but perhaps having some developmental delays. During her first 6 months of life, Amanda did very well. She was a little delayed in certain areas but was progressing well.

In early December 2004, Amanda was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and we started early intervention services (physical therapy & occupational therapy). Then in December 2004, she started having seizures and was diagnosed with something called Infantile Spasms, a very severe form of epilepsy in infancy. This diagnosis came with a grim prognosis regarding intellect, but Amanda significantly outperformed the mean. She learned to talk at 10 months and continued to make progress.

Over the next 6-8 months, we fought infantile spasms and gained seizure control, only to have them come back and see Amanda lose skills. By the time we went to UCLA for surgery, she was having over 100 seizures per day while on 7 anticonvulsants. The doctors at UCLA indicated that her best chance was to have major brain surgery.

On October 14, 2005, Amanda underwent an 8 hour surgery, called a hemispherectomy (where one half of the brain is partially removed and the rest of that side is disconnected from the other side). The technical term is that she had a left side hemispherectomy with a corpus callosotomy and hippocampectomy. Basically, what this means is that she has one in-tact hemisphere still functioning and everything else has been disconnected or removed. On November 10, 2005, she had a VP shunt placed to address pressure issues in her brain.

While the surgery initially left Amanda with severe hemiparesis (right sided weakness), she is now walking in a gait trainer and with assistance in a regular walker. She also sits unassisted, rolls both ways, kneels, etc. She is still working at transitions into many of these positions but has mastered them if you put her in the position. She has regained most of the gross motor and fine motor skills in her right leg and much of the gross motor skills have returned to her right arm. The fine motor in her right hand is still very slow to develop.

The surgery also resulted in the removal of her speech center (which is typically located in the left hemisphere). Despite that, Amanda is gaining language skills and now says about 7-8 words, including Mama, Dada, Nana, BoBo (the name of her therapeutic riding horse), more, bye-bye, and yes. Finally, the surgery also resulted in some visual impairment but thus far the impairment doesn't seem to impact her too much. According to the surgeon, she lost 25% of her visual field, but it appears to be the upper right quadrant (so her peripheral vision is cut earlier than ours). She compensates well and is able to find toys and grab them, look all of us in the eye, etc., so I don't think the visual aspect will be her biggest issue moving forward.

Her future prognosis is not fully known but the best estimate is that if she remains seizure free (which she has since surgery), she could have a developmental quotient in the 60-80% range. Thus far, all of her therapists (current therapies include occupational, physical, speech, vision, and CBRS [education based]) are thrilled with her progress since surgery. She has made great strides in all areas.

Why we would like to be considered for an assistance dog…

Amanda has been such a tremendous gift to us. The lessons she has taught us have totally changed our lives. We can not imagine life without her. She is one of the happiest and most loving kids out there and she gives us so much. We would like to give her something in return that could potentially make her life a lot easier and more fun.

Amanda loves stimulation and loves attention. We believe that an assistance dog could be a huge benefit to her socially. Most importantly, it would give her another friend to play with. Because of the medicines used to treat her condition followed by a year-long fight with an intestinal infection (which is now totally gone), Amanda has not had a lot of interaction outside of the home. We are in the process of updating her vaccinations, but it will be at least a year before she is caught up. We believe an assistance dog could be a special friend to her that would give her some nice social bonding without risk of exposure to childhood illnesses. It would be wonderful if Amanda had a friend to comfort her and sit by her side when our attentions are temporarily diverted with making dinner or helping our other daughter with homework. In a few years when she enters school, she will face her first days outside of our extended family. We believe that an assistance dog will help her a great deal socially because rather than being the "different" child in the walker, she would be the cute little girl with the dog. We hope that this dog could be her best friend and confidant so that she could make this transition more easily.

There are physical and mental benefits that she could also reap by having a service dog. While Amanda has good strength in her limbs, she fights with balance. It would be wonderful if the dog could be there to provide a little balance as she walked. Given that Amanda had major brain surgery, falls are not something we would like to see happen frequently. It would be nice to have a dog who could give her a little support and decrease the likelihood of falls.

I could also envision the dog picking up her pencil if she dropped it while working on an assignment. While this goal is a little further out, there are some big ways that a dog could help her in the nearer term with cause and effect issues in the home. She is currently learning cause and effect right now with some good success. It would be wonderful if she had a dog that would gently retrieve a rolled ball and return it to her so that she could roll it again. It would also be wonderful for her to have something warm and fluffy to pet with her affected right hand, to encourage movement in her right fingers.

Amanda has spoken the words dog and doggie before and she seems to be very attracted to dogs. She loved petting a friend's golden retriever. We have a schnauzer and while he is a wonderful little dog and is loved, he is too small and a bit too excitable for her to keep up with him. We took him through 2 obedience classes and took every opportunity to socialize him when we was a puppy so he is really good with other dogs but he is only 15 pounds and is still really active. He has never shown any aggression toward another dog and loves to play with them, so I think he would adjust to another dog in the house very easily. In fact, our babysitter recently brought a lab mix over for the day just to see how he would do and he accepted her dog fully (they played for a while and then went their own ways).

In sum, Amanda has had a bit of a rough road in her short life and we believe that an assistance dog could really improve the quality of her life. She is an amazing person and I am honored to be her mom. I hope that you will find her situation worthy of an assistance dog. Thank you so much for your consideration.

Thanks so much! Susan I. (Amanda's Mom)

For more information on Amanda, you can check out her blog at: http://www.amandaiupdate.blogspot.com, or go to: http://www.amanda.story.paws4people.org

To help Amanda, and others, get their Assistance Dogs, please go to: http://www.amanda.paws4people.org

Amanda's parents have established a foundation to advance the understanding and treatment of conditions associated with Infantile Spasms and to foster support to those impacted by the condition. For more information go to: http://www.infantilespasmsfoundation.org