Cody’s Paws for His Cause

We are a family of 6 from Junction Village in South East Victoria. Our amazingly strong, resilient 12 year old son Cody was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour and hydrocephalus (excess fluid on the brain) just before he was 2 years old. Since then Cody has undergone 9 brain surgeries to date (with another to be scheduled this year) Since initial diagnosis Cody has had many diagnoses along the way, Epilepsy, Hypothalamus Dysfunction which causes Adrenal Crisis when he is sick,  as his body does not produce cortisol (stress hormone), ABI (acquired brain injury) ID (intellectual disability). With all of this Cody’s physical ability,  memory, cognition and ability to learn is severely impacted. Cody will never be able to live alone and will require constant care for the rest of his life.  His epilepsy is resistant to medication and is uncontrolled. All medications have been tried, tested and failed (Cody even contracted meningitis from one of his Epilepsy treatments). He has had more ambulance trips, more emergency admissions and more out patient appointments than we can remember and most of these have been due to prolonged seizures and adrenal crisis. Cody’s seizures do not stop without medical intervention and even with emergency medication there is no guarantee that it will stop. The longer a seizure lasts undetected, the more difficult to intervene and the risk of a seizure claiming his life becomes a terrifying reality. Cody’s last seizure was his first nocturnal (overnight) seizure and by the time we were able to intervene and contact paramedics, he had been seizing for approximately 15 minutes. Since then it has been brought to our attention that a seizure alert dog would add an extra level of care for Cody, a companion that would be with him always and able to quickly get our attention in case of emergency. We have cameras, audio monitors and a seizure mat on his bed, these of course are not fail safe, a simple power cut renders them totally useless and we feel that an alert dog would not only give Cody comfort and companionship but also watch over him always, especially when he is asleep.  A seizure alert dog costs $30,000 to train initially and over $5000 a year to maintain its training, diet and over all health. Once the initial deposit is raised it takes 18 months to train the dog. It is up to us to raise a minimum of $20,000 and the remaining comes from the organisation training the dog. Every little bit helps, please spread the word far and wide to help our son find a dog that could potentially save his life. Thank you for your time. 

Please head on over to our Facebook page "Cody's Paws for His Cause"  like and share, this will be updated daily with fundraising and updates on Cody's health along the way :) 

Peace and love,

The Wallace Family