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Caitlin Howell playfully picks up her 4-year-old son, Joshua, as bedtime arrives in the family's home in North Stafford.
Joshua Howell plays in the bathtub at home. The Howells are trying to raise $15,000 to get a specially trained seizure-alert response dog for him.
Joshua Howell, 4, hugs his father, Jeff, as the two sit at the kitchen table in the family's Stafford County home. |
By CATHY DYSON
After her son had his third serious seizure in 18 months, Caitlin Howell decided she couldn't sit around and wait for the next one.
The thought of what might happen if 4-year-old Joshua had a grand mal seizure at night, when she and her husband, Army Maj. Jeff Howell, were asleep, was too much to bear.
Joshua has dozens of petit mal seizures daily, during which he stares into space for a few minutes. But during the more violent grand mals, he blacks out, has convulsions and vomits.
"If he has a seizure at night," Caitlin said, tears welling up in her eyes, "he's going to drown."
The North Stafford mother started scouring the Internet for ways to help her son, who is epileptic and high-functioning autistic. She decided that a service dog would give Joshua the protection he needs and his parents the peace of mind they crave.
"It breaks my heart that he can't go play in his playroom like a normal kid and be by himself for 15 minutes," she said. "But I'm terrified that he's going to have another seizure, and no one's going to be there with him."
A service dog would be Joshua's constant companion--and be trained to alert his parents if a seizure is coming.
The dog also would help Joshua get into a safe place and keep him there until he recovers.
What Caitlin Howell liked most about the idea was that the dog would push Joshua on his side during a seizure to keep his airways open.
"That sold me," she said.
Some dogs have an innate ability to sense a seizure, said Jon Sabin, owner of Seizure Alert Dogs for Life. Researchers believe there's a change in a person's behavior or scent that signals an oncoming episode.
Other dogs can be trained to detect the changes, said Sabin, who lives in New York.
Sabin also suffers from epilepsy and gets several hundred calls and e-mails daily from people with situations as desperate as Joshua's. He can't help them all, but he said he agreed to work with the Howells because they recognize a service animal will become a four-legged member of the family who will be with Joshua around the clock.
Some people think they can leave the service dog in the backyard when they go shopping or out to eat.
"That's not how it works," Sabin said. "It's a huge commitment, and the Howells have that type of commitment."
The couple has to raise $15,000 for Sabin to train a West German Show Line German shepherd, the only breed he uses.
The Howells already have maxed out their credit cards on specialists and therapy, medicine and dietary supplements.
They rely solely on Jeff Howell's income. Caitlin Howell stays at home with Joshua and his 13-month-old brother, Conner.
The mother has posted fliers in her North Stafford neighborhood and made purple ribbons--the color to support epilepsy--to sell to friends and fellow members of the Living Hope Lutheran Church in Stafford.
"I don't know that I've ever seen anybody as driven as Caitlin," said her neighbor, Leah Herbert. "She blows my mind."
The Howells eat regularly at Jimmy the Greek Restaurant on Garrisonville Road. Next Friday, the owners will donate 10 percent of their receipts that night to Joshua's service-dog fund.
Jeff Howell, who served in the Special Forces before he became an Army analyst, was deployed to Bosnia in 1997, to Afghanistan in 2001 and to Iraq in 2003.
When the Howells go to their new duty station in Fort Lewis, Wash., this summer, the major is likely to be deployed again.
Caitlin Howell hopes Joshua will have a service dog long before then, so his safety is one less thing his father will have to worry about when he's deployed.
"He needs to have his head in the game and not be thinking about what's going on back home," Caitlin Howell said. "A service dog will help him do that."
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
DONATIONS to help the Howell family raise $15,000 for a service dog for their son, Joshua, can be made at any Navy Federal Credit Union branch. Donations should be made in the name of Joshua Howell, access No. 5027641.
A FUNDRAISER for Joshua is planned Friday, Jan. 29, from 5 to 10 p.m., at Jimmy the Greek Family Restaurant in North Stafford. Owners will donate 10 percent of the night's receipts. MORE INFORMATION about Seizure Alert Dogs for Life is available at epstorm .blogspot.com/2010/01/mili tary-child-needs-americas-help-for.html CAITLIN HOWELL can be reached at howellmuk@aol.com.Joshua Howell was diagnosed with autism when
He's developmentally delayed but is considered a high-functioning autistic, said his mother, Caitlin. He speaks in four- or five-word sentences, responds to questions and interacts with his little brother, Conner.
He's the youngest person to get a dog from Seizure Alert Dogs for Life, said owner Jon Sabin, who has trained 32 dogs for people in recent years.
Because Joshua is vocal,
He'll also feed and water the German shepherd, who may get as big as 100 pounds. His mother will clean up the long hair the dog sheds, and his father will be responsible for the piles the dog leaves behind.
