It will change the life of this precious young man and his family who deal with seizures on on a regular basis. Seizure response dogs are a special type of service dog, specifically trained to help someone who has epilepsy or a seizure disorder. The Chelsea Hutchison Foundation is currently fundraising to be able to provide a $2500 grant to Caleb and his service dog. Due to the differing needs between each case, every potential seizure dog receives specialized training.
Caleb's Mother reports that having a seizure-response dog (SRD) would give her a higher sense of security to allow Caleb to do more. As of now, she is always scared and worried he will have a seizure and she won't be there to help him. A SRD would help Caleb feel more confident doing the things he enjoys without having to worry that no one will be there. She also believes that this SRD will provide Caleb with less stress and a much brighter future.
This project will allow a little boy to be a little boy. Having a SRD will help keep Caleb safe and will bring some peace to his family. Some of the specialty tasks being trained will be learning to recognize a seizure and alerting the family, bracing a fall and protecting him during a seizure.
Our goal is to get life-saving measures in line for all who could benefit from them. By raising SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) awareness, our hope is to get epilepsy research on the radar. Most believe that if you have seizures you can take a pill and be cured. Truth is that only 1/3 of those with seizures are controlled by medication. For many, multiple seizures are an every-day part of their life. 1 in 26 will be diagnosed with epilepsy in their lifetime.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
