A local teen hopes the community could help her obtain a specialized service dog to help with a medical condition that is affecting every part of her daily life.
“My biggest challenge in life is passing out and not knowing when,” said Alison McMillan, a sophomore at Columbus Signature Academy New Tech High School.
McMillan and her family are trying to find a solution to her condition, while she recovers from her most recent fall, which caused her most serious injuries thus far.
On March 15, McMillan, who is 17, and her mother, Kimberly McMillan-Goodwin, were walking in downtown Columbus when, without warning, McMillan lost consciousness and fell forward, hitting her head twice on the pavement.
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She was unconscious for more than five minutes and was taken by ambulance to Columbus Regional Hospital. Doctors later determined that McMillan had suffered a severe concussion and would need physical therapy to help correct the brain damage that she had sustained in the fall.
“There was no warning,” said McMillan-Goodwin. “She just fell down, and her head hit the cement. When she falls, there are no arms going out to brace herself because when she falls, she just goes down. When she goes down, it’s dead weight.”
Ongoing episodes
The fall was one of many falls that McMillan has suffered since 2013. The teen has a rare medical condition called neurocardiogenic vasovagal syncope, which causes her to experience sudden syncopal episodes, or unpredictable drops in blood pressure, that cause her to lose consciousness.
The syncopal episodes can strike at any moment and can last from two to five minutes or longer. She has no way to know when she will lose consciousness, McMillan-Goodwin said. In the past year alone, McMillan has sustained at least 30 minor concussions. She has broken two teeth and her glasses.
McMillan-Goodwin said the start of the episodes coincided with a car accident in 2013 in which McMillan was injured, but doctors have been unable to definitively conclude that the accident caused the medical condition. McMillan takes medication to raise her blood pressure, but doctors have told her and her mother that there is no way to completely eliminate the episodes.
“Her syncopal episodes have progressed this past year,” McMillan-Goodwin said. “They have become more frequent. Imagine hitting your head all those times. The doctors said it’s like a football player playing football without a helmet.”
But as McMillan’s family scrambles to find a solution to help her, they are focusing in a particular direction.
They hope to buy a specialized service dog that could alert McMillan of an impending syncopal episode so she could get on the ground on her own before she loses consciousness, to avoid the types of injuries she has been experiencing, McMillan-Goodwin said.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. officials and CSA New Tech Principal Mike Reed are supportive of the family’s efforts to get a service dog.
How a dog could help
The service dogs, known as cardiac alert dogs, can detect changes in a person’s blood pressure and can alert people with cardiac syncope conditions before they lose consciousness, said Tonya Guy, director of communications at Canine Partners for Life, a non-profit based in Cochranville, Pennsylvania. The non-profit trains and places service and companion dogs, including cardiac alert dogs, across the United States.
Though scientists have not been able to identify the specific mechanisms through which some dogs can detect these changes, Guy said her organization believes that some dogs are just born with that ability.
“It’s an innate ability that the dogs have,” Guy said. “We believe that the dogs are picking up on a scent emitted from the body that alerts them to the (episode). We can’t pick up on it, but the dogs can.”
Canine Partners for Life primarily trains yellow and black Labradors, golden retrievers and standard poodles to be service dogs.
The organizations puts the dogs through two years of training. The first year is focused on basic obedience and after about 14 months, the dogs start working with professional trainers to see if they have the ability to alert and do other advanced tasks like pressing elevator buttons and opening doors.
Each dog, however, develops its own way to alert somebody of an impending episode, Guy said.
“Some might nudge their person, some might stare at them,” Guy said. “Some dogs might lick their person. People will pick up on that behavior. This typically happens 10 minutes to one hour before an (episode). The dogs are pretty consistent in alerting.”
McMillan said having the service dog would dramatically change her life.
“(Having a service dog) would mean a better quality of life,” McMillan said. “I mean, the service dog would literally be by my side every second of every day. So I would know in advance if I was going to pass out … It would be nice to have that warning so that I could get to the ground.”
Because last month’s fall was so severe, McMillan, who has a GPA of 4.8/4.0 (A grade of A-plus in a course is worth 4.33/4.0 on the grading scale), is struggling to recover, her mother said. The most recent concussion has affected her ability to perform in school, including her ability to read, think, process information and remember things.
“She can’t grasp things like she could before and she can’t hold and retain things like she could before,” McMillan-Goodwin said. “And her brain gets overloaded easily, looking at computer screens for long periods of time is difficult.”
Covering the cost
While the family is hopeful a service dog can be obtained, they have learned the dogs are expensive.
McMillan-Goodwin said she was disabled in the same car accident in 2013 and is currently a stay-at-home single mom. She and her daughter live off of spousal support, she said.
Canine Partners for Life typically asks for a $1,000 to $3,000 donation based on the recipient’s income in order to get a cardio response dog, and the wait time to get a dog is, on average, around two to four years, Guy said.
McMillan-Goodwin said that Community Christian Church of Columbus will be helping her raise money to purchase a dog. However, Rodney Lucas, church director of operations, said the church is not ready to start accepting any donations but will likely start a GoFundMe page to assist McMillan and her mother.
McMillan, for her part, was beaming on Wednesday when speaking about her goals in life. She wants to go to college and be an engineer or a meteorologist. McMillan and her mother said they hope the service dog will help McMillan “be a normal teenager” and lead a more independent life.
“Even in the adversity of all of this medical uncertainty and dealing with all the effects of all of these medical things, she doesn’t give up,” McMillan-Goodwin said, starting to tear up. “She doesn’t. She keeps persevering.”
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If you are interested in helping Alison McMillan obtain a service dog, please contact her family through CSA New Tech at (812) 376-4595.
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