Cara

"She came in to Heartspring what I thought was a wreck - came in with so much baggage. There was a lot of denial. I wasn't going to give up on her. I knew if anyone could help her, this was the place in this city where she needed to come."
- Lanelle, Cara's mom

Cara was only eight days old when encephalitis, a dangerous inflammation of the brain, caused her to have a 104 degree fever and many life-threatening seizures. After 12 hours of seizures, Cara finally began to rally. An MRI was taken and the neurologist predicted severe cerebral palsy. They believed the trauma to her brain during the seizures was permanent. Not knowing what the future held for Cara, her parents, Lanelle and Pete, and her big sister, Jillian, took her home from the hospital when she 21 days old. Lanelle called Heartspring for a free developmental screening which revealed Cara's development at six months to be similar to that of a two to three month old baby. But Cara's parents were encouraged by the results of a new MRI that showed normal brain growth and no brain tissue damage. She came to Heartspring for physical and speech language therapies until 2005 when she graduated from the program. Today, Cara is all smiles, running around and talking a mile a minute, all the while flashing her dimples as a reminder for all to gather hope.