Utah family seeking help for an 18-month-old prone to seizures

Anneka Johns
·2 min read

RICHFIELD, Utah (ABC4) — A young girl in Richfield needs help after her family said she was diagnosed with multiple life-changing disorders.

Briar Curtis, an upbeat 18-month-old baby, was diagnosed with a neurological disorder threatening her way of life. Her family thinks they have found a way to improve it, in the form of a four-legged friend.

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“She literally is the happiest little baby ever,” Briar’s mom, Lateishia Curtis, said.

Lateishia said she labored for 36 hours and ended up having an emergency C-section bringing Briar into the world. During that C-section, doctors cut an artery.

“A lot of traumatic things happened during the delivery that was not ideal, that could have possibly been an effect to where things are today” Lateishia said.

After Briar was born, she was diagnosed with a heart condition called SVT, where her heart rate is faster than normal.

On Dec. 15, she had a small procedure done at Primary Children’s, but after a few hours of being discharged, her parents noticed something was wrong.

“The day that they placed her ear tubes is when we discovered that Briar was having grand mal seizures,” Lateishia said.

And on top of SVT, Briar was diagnosed with epilepsy.

Lateishia recalled a time when Briar had a 35 minute long seizure, saying it took three different rescue medications to pull her out of it.

Now, her family is rallying to give her a chance at a normal life. And they say it can be accomplished by one thing — a seizure-detection dog.

Bar-T Kennels trains dogs to alert the person having seizures when it’s about to happen.

“That way, they can lay down there in a safe spot,” Kyler Torgersen, owner of Bar-T Kennels, said.

The family said they have the dog and trainer, but due to the high costs of service training, they need help. Jordan Johnson organized a GoFundMe to help the family through this medical journey.

While the family said Briar’s seizures may never fully go away, giving her a constant companion trained just for her state of mind will be life-changing.

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