A mother with a daughter who is facing lifelong medical challenges is finding ways to give her slices of life she might not otherwise experience.
Melissa Russell welcomed daughter Leah in 2006. As an infant and toddler, there were indications that Leah was different than other children.
“She would have these staring spells which I attributed to just being baby,” Melissa tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Even older kids tend to do that. But later on, I learned those were actually seizures.”
At age 3, Leah started going to school, where she was first offered therapy for a speech delay. Her initial diagnosis was ADHD, but as she came up to kindergarten, the family found therapy wasn’t doing what they’d hoped for Leah.
After two years of kindergarten, Leah moved on with an IEP (individualized education program). She was speaking, but only in short sentences. Different professionals continued to try to help Leah advance developmentally and academically. Then, in 2014, Leah had her first seizure in school, a grand mal, or tonic clonic seizure.
