Child's Wish for a Seizure Alert Dog - ABC6 - Providence, RI and New Bedford, MA News, Weather

Child's Wish for a Seizure Alert Dog

By: Melissa Toupin

mtoupin@abc6.com

Five-year-old Jakob MacLaure has been having seizures since the day he was born, sometimes more than one a day. He's been in and out of the hospital for years. His family is now hoping a Seizure Alert Dog will help his family make sure he Jakob is in a safe environment and give them time to take all necessary precautions. The specially trained alert dog comes with a hefty price tag. The family can't afford the costs on their own.

Jakob's story:

Jakob has a smile that can light up a Room. The kindergartner is making strides in his classroom at Woonsocket's Globe Park Elementary School.

"He is what makes me want to come to school everyday," said Angela Allard who works one-on-one with Jakob. "I really love working with him. He's just fun to be with."

Jakob seems like any of the other kids. He counts and paints with the rest of his class, but behind his lovable personality lay serious medical illnesses including cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He has seizures daily.

"It's become so natured to us," said Jakob's mother, Desiree MacLure. "When he was in therapy one time the therapist said ‘he's not answering me'. I said ‘well, yeah. He's seizing,' and she said ‘how can you just say that?' It's, I don't know any other way. It's his life."

Jakob's been through just about every kind of procedure and medication available. He's had over fifteen surgeries, but his seizures are always looming. His family hoping her sons wish for a Seizure Alert Dog will be the answer to their prayers.

"So, a dog can pick up the scent and know a seizure is coming which would allow us to mediate him ahead of time," said Desiree.

But the dog that Jakob so desperately needs can cost upwards of $15,000. It's why the family has teamed up with Children's Wishes. A fundraiser to help grant Jakob's wish to be held in North Smithfield Saturday afternoon. His family hoping it will mean a bright future for the boy doctors said would be a vegetable.

"He's a miracle," said Desiree. "This is a child who wasn't supposed to live and wasn't supposed to really be anything. And he's proved the doctors wrong. I mean he's great, and we couldn't be more proud of him."

For information about the fundraiser: http://ww.abc6.com/story/19486958/jakobs-wish-fundraiser