A parent's worst nightmare- their child getting sick and not knowing the final outcome.

As a close family/friend to Kaiden and Alia, I am setting up this fundraiser to help relieve them of some medical bills, therapy sessions, nutrition sessions and help Kaiden get his therapy dog. We are so grateful for your contribution during this hard time and support of this great family!

I asked Alia (super mom) to share Kaiden's journey of how it all started and where we are at today.

The week of October 23 Kaiden had his normal typical week with school, soccer practice, Jui Jitsu practice and was looking forward to his school's Harvest Festival with his grandma on October 27. Unfortunately, that day, there was 30 minutes left of school and his school called that he had a fever around 1pm. His grandma picked him up and took him home to give him some soup and tylenol before he took a nap. He woke up from his nap, watched tv until it was bedtime and just rested for the day. More tylenol was given before bed. When 2am rolled around and his grandma woke up to go check on him, she gave him some motrin and that is when his and our lives changed. My mom (Grandma) noticed a really weird twitch in his face and his arm. She immediately got him dressed and took him to San Antonio hospital and gave me a call to meet her there. Hours passed at San Antonio hospital as Kaiden continued to have these weird twitching episodes and San Antonio did a CT & MRI and didn't see anything. They decided they were going to discharge us since they didn't know what it was the CT, MRI & Labs were clear and didn't show anything except Chronic Sinusitis & Pneumonia. As the nurse was about to hand us our discharge papers Kaiden had yet another episode but this time, he couldn't speak clearly after it. At that point the Neurologist said we needed to be transferred because they did not have a pediatric neurologist at their hospital. They coordinated with CHOC and we were transferred a few hours later. In the matter of 7 hours spent at San Antonio ER he had a total of 8 episodes. We then arrived to CHOC hospital after the 40 minute drive and went into their ER where they were able to see a handful more of Kaidens episodes that lasted anywhere between 20 seconds to 2 minutes. They called them Focal Seizure, so seizures that focus on 1 or 2 places in the body and in his case are the right side of his face and right arm. CHOC ER decided to do a CT, MRI & this time a Lumbar Puncture to rule out Meningitis because that could cause seizures. Everything came back clear so we were still in the unknown. We were then moved up to the 5th floor, the Neuroscience floor, where we were admitted and closely monitored. They started administering seizure meds. Fast forwarding a few hours we were then transferred to the 6th floor PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) as Kaiden continued to get worse and seizure meds were not working. They hooked Kaiden up to an EEG monitor that consisted of 36 wires glued all over his head to monitor his brain waves and had an epileptologist watching it 24/7. Skipping a few days 11/1 morning came around they needed to give him an even stronger seizure med and start him on Fentanyl so they needed to intubate him so they could protect his airway since these were strong meds. I called Kaidens pediatrician while standing in the hallway in tears not knowing what was going to happen and needing her medical input because we trust her with our lives and Kaidens life, she assured me this was a great call.

My older sister, Ariel, has helped keep me sane and been very helpful during this hard time. Danny, my husband, had been caring for our 1.5 year old daughter Maverik, as I stay in the hospital with Kaiden. I then called to tell him what was happening and he arrived at the hospital within 15 minutes to be with us. We entered back into the room and he was hooked up to a ventilator that was breathing for him. Fast forwarding to the next day 11/2 Kaiden was still having seizures and they sent him down for yet another MRI except this time the MRI showed Encephalitis (Swelling Of The Brain). It finally presented itself and we had a visit from the Neurosurgery team letting us know that if it came to a point the swelling continued that they may need to place a drain inside Kaidens brain to drain his cerebral fluid to allow extra space for his brain to swell because if we dont his brain will have nowhere to swell except down pushing on his brain stem which would then herniate and cause him to be brain dead. He said we were not there yet but he needed to let us know. 11/2 came around and after he did not do well overnight we were yet again in front of the neurosurgery team telling us we needed to do the surgery. Kaiden went to surgery for 1.5 hours and came out safely back to me. Kaiden was sedated & paralyzed from 10/29-11/17 and between this time frame he had the following as well, he was placed on a cooling blanket as he was unable to regulate his own body temperature, he had 2 PICC lines (IV that from in the side of his biceps through big arterial that went right above his heart in both arms, an arterial line placed in his right foot, an IV in his left foot and left forearm, an NG tube to feed him a new medically required Ketogenic Diet. They upped his dose on one the seizure meds very high until they basically shut his brain down for a full weekend and his brain did absolutely nothing to see if they could reset his brain. 11/9-11/11 he was in "Burst Suppression" and then started weaning meds down to slowly wake him up. No more seizures were seen and med weaning continued until he came off of Versed, Pentobarbital, Fentanyl and paralytic which were 4 very strong and pretty dangerous meds that were extremely necessary. He then started to get some PICC lines, IVs, and extra meds removed as he started to require less and less. His EVD the drain he needed was removed, cooling blanket removed, Arterial line removed. He began waking up and each day that passed woke up more and more. He was intubated for 30 days. He had his NG tube in for 46 days and was finally removed 12/13.

He started Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy & Speech Therapy on 12/1 and thrived every single day getting stronger and stronger. He exceeded every doctor's expectations as to how quickly he got stronger and how quickly he was able to eat again. After 47 days he is unable to walk, unable to talk, write and do fine motor tasks with his hands. He qualified for Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation and was accepted into Children's Hospital Of Los Angeles. We arrived at CHLA on 11/14 and he now has 3 hours of therapy 6 days a week. Kaiden had a tone of blood test, a brain biopsy, Genome sequencing testing along with myself, and every disease, bacteria, virus, syndrome, illness, etc was tested and all came back negative and was officially Diagnosed with FIRES (Febrile Infection Related Epilepsy Syndrome) which is a rare 1 in a million autoimmune disorder. With this disease being only about 10 years old there Is not a lot of information on it and it cannot be tested for. They are unsure if this will be his one and only episode or if this can happen again or if seizures will return due to this not having a lot of information. We will forever be in the unknown. He will continue on seizure medications for years, a ketogenic diet for a few years, infusions every 2 weeks of an autoimmune medication, and outpatient PT, OT & Speech once we are discharged from CHLA. They are unable to tell if Kaiden will regain all functions again and return to the Kaiden everyone knew or if he will have suffered lasting damage from the brain swelling which damaged his right and left temporal lobes. They are also unsure if they will be able to send Kaiden home able to walk or talk so there is a possibility he will go home unable to do these things. Estimated timeframe of how long it will take his brain to heal is unknown but a minimum of 6 months to see a Kaiden we all know. He qualifies for a Seizure Service Dog and may need equipment for our home. He is a Miracle is what many drs and nurses told us. He is a survivor is what they told us. He brought so much strength to Drs & Nurses and was a reminder to them as to why they chose the profession is what they told us. Kaiden had a guardian angel and so many people all around the world prayed for him and our prayers and everyone's prayers were answered. He is here, he is alive, he surviving and getting by.

Thank you for all the continued prayers, and your donation of helping this sweet family!