North Reading Family Needs Your Help

It was the last thing anyone expected as the calendar turned to March. But now a North Reading family needs your help dealing with the aftermath of a scary brain illness that has brought with it tremendous financial challenges. With help from her youcaring.com page, this is the story of 6-year-old Kallie LaBarge, a kindergarten student at the Little School.

On March 14th Kallie was rushed into Tufts Floating Hospital in Boston and was diagnosed with Post Infectious Encephalitis. Essentially this is inflammation or swelling of the brain as a result of some infectious process. She had been diagnosed with the flu several days earlier, but instead of improving days later she continued to feel worse. Kallie began to develop symptoms of dizziness, being unable to stand or sit without falling, and slurred speech. Because she had continued to decline, her mom Joanna Maguire took her to Tufts Floating Hospital where she was eventually diagnosed with encephalitis. She was treated with high dose IV steroids in an attempt to decrease the swelling on her brain.

After several difficult and stressful days in the hospital, she was discharged to Franciscan Children’s Hospital to begin rehab to rebuild her strength and return to her prior level of function at home and at school. She is undergoing several hours per day of intensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Doctors are anticipating she will require at least 3-4 weeks of inpatient rehab. Once she is discharged home from rehab, she will likely not be able to return to school right away and may require further therapy.

Kallie and her family have a very long road ahead of them. Maguire, a Stoneham High graduate, is a single parent and recently began a new job as a special education teacher in Wilmington. She has run out of sick days. She also has an 11-year-old daughter at home. Maguire has spent weeks by her daughter’s side, and therefore has been unable to work. Bills and expenses have been adding up. As a mom, she shouldn’t have to worry about paying for expenses while she stays by her daughter’s side during this long recovery process. We are asking for any amount of donation to help her and her family make this very difficult time just a little easier!

Here's a link to her youcaring.com page with info on how you can help.