Stronger faith comes through trial for LR family

November 25 - December 1, 2013

By Jay Edwards

The call came on a Friday, this past August 30, when most people were getting ready for the typical long holiday weekend that signals the end of summer. GG Millard was at Fairway Mortgage, the business she owns in the Heights. But the phone call, from Pulaski Academy, where her four-and-a-half year-old twins, Madison and Austin were in their pre K 4 classes, was anything but typical. 

It was from Madison’s teacher, Lindsey Warren, who said something was wrong and described that Madison had been playing in the classroom when she collapsed. She had full facial droop and paralysis on her right side. 

“That sounds like a stroke,” Millard thought, and headed immediately to the school.

She also called her husband Chad, who owns a Shelter Insurance Agency. Within moments there was a fire truck passing him on the way to PA. The school had called 911. 

On her way there, Millard’s mind went back to the day the twins were born, when they got the immediate news that Madison had a heart defect that would require surgery. Now she wondered if this was a result of that condition.

“When we got to the school she was alert but could not stand or move her right arm,” Millard said. 

They got in the ambulance and headed to Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

“I have a friend who works in the ER at Children’s,” she said. “He was not working then but I called him on his cell and told him we were in the ambulance and we thought Madison had had a stroke and we were headed to Children’s. He knew all of Madison’s history and called ahead, letting the hospital know.” 

Waiting when they arrived were a cardiologist and neurologist. 

That is a main reason why many adults often do well, because stroke signs are recognizable and the ambulance can call ahead, so the hospital can be prepared. But that isn’t usually the case with kids because people don’t think of strokes in relation to the young. “Madison’s teachers,” Millard said, “as well as the school nurse, Shanna Tedder, deserve so much credit for seeing this for what it was and reacting as quickly as they did.” 

With a stroke, time is critical. Generally, a person who is treated within three hours of having one has a much greater chance of recovering with no, or minimal, debilitating effects.

Looking for answers

Just three months earlier the Millard’s had been told that everything was normal with Madison’s heart. But it was understandable that the cardiologist at Children’s thought that this was from the defect detected at birth. 

An Ischemic stroke accounts for about three-quarters of all strokes and occurs when a blood clot forms and blocks blood flow to part of the brain. The most common and best treatment is a protein medication known as TPA (tissue plasminogen activator), which acts as a clot-buster. But no one was sure they even had any TPA at Children’s, again because of the rarity of strokes in kids.

Then, while they searched for the drug, Madison showed improvement, which is not uncommon with stroke victims. This gave the doctor’s reason to pause. If this was not a stroke, they didn’t want to administer the TPA, because there can be bad side effects, not the least of which is brain bleeding. 

The doctors decided on an MRI to be sure, but the problem there was all the tables were full. So they waited, and searched for the drug that would be needed if a clot was discovered. The clock was ticking. 

At last, with only 15 minutes to spare, an MRI table opened. Also the TPA had been found and doctors got Chad and GG’s permission to treat her immediately on the MRI table if the clot was found.

The test result showed an occluded (closed) carotid artery, resulting from a large (8 millimeter) blood clot.

Madison had, in fact, had a very rare stroke. And while heart patients do have strokes, this was ruled to be not from the heart, or pertaining to the heart.

The other main cause of strokes in children is a blood disorder where the blood clots abnormally. They tested for that and the results were negative as well. The doctors told them that unfortunately many times it goes undiagnosed. As their neurologist told them, there is no data out there. “Four-year olds just don’t have strokes,” Millard said.

But doctors were still baffled by the cause, and seeking answers they kept going back to Madison’s heart. They thought there was a clot on the aorta, and more scans and MRI’s were ordered. “That was scary,” Millard said, “because if that were the case they told us there were no good options.” 

However, that was found to be scar tissue from the surgery when she was born. 

“We just don’t know,” was the final answer.

Madison was in the hospital three weeks, pediatric ICU for seven days and then spent time in a rehabilitation clinic. “It was intense therapy for two weeks,” her mother says.

She still undergoes physical therapy five days a week, which will likely last six more months, maybe even a year.

She is now moving her right arm, which is a great sign; and her neurologist says, because of that, the sky is the limit. With stroke victims, of any age, the hand and motor skills are the hardest to get back.

She went back to school for a few hours on the day of this interview, and the teachers sent a picture, of Madison, with her friend Phoebe Finley. Madison was smiling and holding onto something with her right hand.

They are hoping she can get back to PA in the spring, even if only for half days starting out.

“She has a great attitude,” Millard says. “Every day that she is able to do something new, it builds her confidence. She is so positive. She can walk by herself now; go up and down the steps. She is creating longer sentences, which is helping her attitude. Every day there is an improvement.”

The bond of twins

As for twin brother Austin, it all happened before Labor Day weekend and so family was in and gathered at the grandparent’s home. There were many needed distractions for him. 

“He knew Madison had gone home sick that day from school,” Millard says. “He believed that was why she was not with them, so the rest of them wouldn’t get sick too. He didn’t know she was in the hospital.” 

But then it was time for them to go back to school, and the dilemma, how do they tell Austin? 

“What do we say to him? Millard wondered. “That was scary for Chad and me, in trying to figure out what to say.”

Fortunately Madison had been moved to a private room and didn’t have any equipment on. The social worker at Children’s was very helpful and gave them some great tools on what to say to Austin. In the car on the way to see Madison, Millard talked with Austin about his sister becoming sick and her hand not working quite right yet and that she looked a little different. The kids happened to be learning about right and left at school. 

“So her right one doesn’t work?” Austin, who is left-handed, asked his mother.  “That’s right,” she told him. “Well that’s easy,” he said. “I use my left hand all the time. I’ll just show her how to do it.”

They got to her room and he climbed up into bed with her. “It was like nothing had changed to him,” Millard said.

“He had always been a little protective of his sister. She used to just terrorize him, pinching and poking. They have there own bedrooms. But now they always want to sleep in the same room. Every night since Madison returned home, Austin is asleep on the pull out trundle in her room, right next to her.”

A test of faith

The Millard’s attend Calvary Baptist, and were on prayer chains of many other churches around town. 

“There are lots of blessings that have come out of it. It has truly strengthened our faith,” Millard says. 

Their Sunday school class rallied for them. She would get an email from them saying “We are all kneeling and praying right now.” “We could feel that presence. It was real. The tag line became, ‘Don’t pick this up, give this worry to God.’” 

“At one point I said to Chad, we are Christians, we have faith. Here is our test. Let’s believe. Once we did that, it became peaceful.” 

“It showed us how to lean into our faith and we really connected and bonded with our class. It was a blessing that came out of all of this. God did not promise it would be easy, what he did promise was that he would be with us through it.”

Another faith moment came the first night at rehab, seven days after the stroke. Millard was not doing well. A new doctor had told her that they needed to plan on retro fitting their house for a handicapped child. “I was really in a funk and not a very good mood,” she says. “I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut.”

That night she stayed at the hospital with Madison by herself. There was a nurse on the wing, an older lady who doesn’t work that much any more. “I just happened to get her. She was helping me make my bed and she could tell I was in a bad mood. She started talking to me about the power of prayer, and about good books she had read on prayer and faith; lots of cool stuff. So we decided then to pray about Madison’s arm, which hadn’t yet moved.” 

“While we were praying, Madison moved her arm from her side to above her head. I stayed up all night that night. I would move the arm back to her side and she would move it back up.”

“There are so many people to thank,” Millard says. “In particular is Neurologist Dr. Kenneth Habetz; he was so persistent, we called him the bulldog; and also Dr. Matt Yaeger, the ER doctor, and the entire ER team. Also my friend who I first called, Dr. Kendall Stanford.”

“And thanks to the wonderful PA teachers Lisa Schrader and Lindsey Warren; and Dean of Students Tiffany Knight and school nurse Shanna Tedder.”

Millard says because of them and the support and prayers of their family and friends, Madison continues to improve daily. 

Maybe the best sign of the young girl’s spirit and how far she has come was in the costume she chose for herself back at Halloween. 

This year she was Super Girl.