The Early Years

 Laurel was born on July 15th 1993 in the maternity ward at Macclesfield General Hospital, just like her two older brothers Ryan and Aidan, and later, younger sister Alanna.

Laurel was a beautiful happy baby girl who developed absolutely normally into a healthy 3-year old without any signs of the serious health problems that were to come.

 However, on Valentines Day 1997, Laurel had her first epileptic fit. At first there was no diagnosis, but after several emergency dashes to Macclesfield Hospital we were given the news that Laurel had epilepsy. Unfortunately, Laurel’s condition deteriorated rapidly over the next few months. She spent more and more time as an in-patient at Macclesfield Hospital, initially for a few days at a time, then weeks. In addition, Laurel developed many different forms of epilepsy and it became clear that her condition was very serious. Eventually, that summer, the decision was taken to transfer Laurel to the Neurology Ward at Booth Hall Children’s Hospital where there were the specialist neurologist consultant and nursing staff able to treat difficult neurological conditions like Laurels. Unfortunately again, Laurel’s condition continued to worsen and she ended up in the Intensive Care Unit of the ward under heavy sedation in a very serious state of “Status Epilepticus” – her brain was fitting continuously in an uncontrollable manner for days. Fortunately her condition slowly improved, but it was some anxious months before we were able to take her home again, even for a few days initially. Having tried many unsuccessful drug therapies, she eventually started on the “Ketogenic Diet” which appears to have helped to stabilise her condition sufficiently enough for us to take her home. She remained on the diet – which consists of ~60% fat, with carefully controlled protein & carbohydrate intake – for four difficult years. Over the years, her condition improved very slowly. She was able to attend mainstream schools with one-to-one support, but it was apparent that she had developed moderate learning difficulties.

 The Later Years

 In the summer of 2004, Laurel’s condition deteriorated again significantly. In some desperation, it was decided to start Laurel on a very high dosage steroid regime. Within weeks, her condition improved dramatically. From a daily expectation of scores of fits of various types, we established a routine of 2 or 3 nighttime fits per month. Her educational development also started to accelerate. She started to really enjoy life to the full and we were able to see her full character shine through. Apart from the side effects of the steroids – she went from being under weight to significantly overweight - we only saw positive benefits including the possibility to hope about the future. The improvement was such that we went from the situation where someone always had to be next to her, holding her hand in case she had a “drop fit” to the situation the following summer where we were able to confidently let her join her dad and sister, riding a horse without assistance through the forests of the Dordogne in France. What a difference!

On the morning of October 12th 2005, Laurel had a short tonic clonic fit in her sleep early in the morning. This was not unusual, and she appeared to be recovering in the normal way. However, when we later checked on her, she had stopped breathing. We fought desperately to revive her, before the ambulances arrived, with the paramedics then in Accident & Emergency, but tragically, we lost her.

In the end, Laurel was a beautiful happy girl who developed epilepsy, but also developed into one of those rare people, able to touch the hearts of everyone she came into contact with. Anyone who was lucky enough to receive a hug from Laurel will remember it for the rest of their lives. She cared about everyone and everything. She hated to see anyone sad and was acutely sensitive to the feelings of others. She wanted to be a nurse – she was in fact already a very fine nurse indeed.