Chase's Story
written by mom Jimmie

Chase was our healthy little girl, no problems till January of 97 when she began having seizures. In March of 97 she was put into the hospital to begin the Ketogenic diet.

The medicines that she was on had already altered her personality and made her sick, and still did not control her seizures. Three weeks later after admission to the hospital we took our daughter home and she could not walk, talk, eat or show any emotions. In that short time she lost every ability she had.

When we first got into the hospital, Chase wanted to go home and we would tell her "when you get better dear", well, she got worse. I saw her laying there in the bed at the hospital so sad, and I would say "Chase can you smile?", she looked at me and said "yes mom, see.." and she gave me the biggest fake smile in the world, she always wanted to make me laugh or smile.

She left the hospital with a g-tube and I had to learn to feed her around the clock. Her seizures have grown worse and she still had no emotions, did not walk or talk. With each doctor visit my Little Jessie asked "is this doctor going to make Chase well so she can play with me again?".

We have had several diagnosis, some contradicting opinions. An undiagnosed degenerative brain disease was what we were told by doctors here in our town.

Chase had her last seizure on September 28,1998. She began having seizures early the day before and had over 30 seizures on the 27th of September. That morning, Stori, Jessie, Chase and I were at home and Jessie told me that Chase was having a seizure, which we all had learned the drill of what to do when she had her seizures, but this time Chase stopped breathing and never came to, the ambulance arrived a few minutes later and she was taken to the Children's Hospital, where she died.

Our princess was buried in her sleeping beauty outfit, with her Buzz and Woody dolls. Our lives have been turned upside down and trying to learn to live with this grief has been difficult. Jessie has lost her big sister and Stori her little sister and seeing their sadness has been hard. They miss Chase so much, and we treasure the memories of our healthy Chase.

Jessie often says, "Remember before Chase got sick how she would do this or that?" and that is what we hold on to the wonderful memories of before she was sick... it makes us treasure the gift of life and hold on tightly to those God has entrusted to us. We know that Chase is up in Heaven looking down on us, she is our Angel!