DATE OF BIRTH: January 31st, 2003

 ILLNESS:  Landau-Kleffner Syndrome.  

BIOGRAPHY

Taylor was born perfect in every way.  She developed beautifully, met all of her milestones until she was 2 1/2.  At this time we began to notice that her speech was regressing.  She was no longer speaking in sentences, and wouldn't answer basic questions. It was not long after this that she had her first seizure.

We were told on our wedding anniversary in 2006 that our daughter had Landau-Kleffner Syndrome.  A ridiculously rare form of Epilepsy - with an incidence of 1 in 4 - 5 million children.

Taylor's seizures become increasingly frequent and severe. She was having more than a hundred each day. We watched her deteriorate and slowly loose all language, she had touble walking and became incontinent. We were then told that Taylor was neurologically deaf - the seizure activity (which is centred in the temporal lobe - the language centre of the brain) had caused so much damage that she was no longer able to understand anything that we said to her and she was left unable to speak.

Through intensive therapy and medication, her seizures have improved.  She has regained much of her lost abilities - she can walk, dance, ride a bike - but sadly, she is still neurologically deaf.  We are learning to communicate again - using sign language. We don't know what the future holds for our precious girl - but we are hopeful. She is a fighter and has already overcome so much.