Rachel Schicker

published 12 Jul 2018 by sandestinfound in Children's Stories category with 0 comments

Rachel 1Rachel Schicker has been a part of the Sandestin Foundation for Kids family since 2015. Many of our faithful followers many remember hearing about her in previous newsletters. Rachel and her twin brother, EJ, were born via an emergency C-section due to a placenta abruption, which caused Rachel and EJ to lose oxygen while drowning in blood. The doctors had a 30-minute window to save the babies and their mom, who was also losing a lot of blood. Due to the work of the doctors at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL, the babies and their mom survived, but Rachel was found to have a brain bleed which has caused her lasting problems, one of those being impaired motor skills. Rachel underwent Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy surgery to help improve her walking. Sandestin Foundation for Kids first helped the Schicker family by covering one year of therapy and purchasing her leg braces, both of which insurance would not cover. In learning to walk, Rachel began having issues with her hip sockets. If her alignment doesn’t improve, Rachel will have to have very invasive surgery to repair them.

Rachel 2Rachel’s family learned that horseback riding can be very beneficial to Rachel’s condition, so in 2017 she started riding horses in a therapy center. Hippotherapy sessions are expensive and insurance doesn’t cover the full amount, so the Foundation helped covered her first year. Rachel’s scans showed improvement which means the hippotherapy is working. In order to keep Rachel’s recovery on the right track, and to hopefully prevent hip surgery, Sandestin Foundation for Kids recently paid for her second year of hippotherapy.

We are so happy that Rachel’s condition is improving and love getting to be a part of her journey!


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