Aleena was without oxygen during her birth which caused Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) and eventually lead to her being diagnosed with quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy.
Born and raised in Illinois, 5-year-old Aleena lives with her mother, Kisha, who is also her sole caretaker. Unfortunately, Kisha – a single mother – is battling her own health problems as she suffered heart failure during her daughter's birth. The added stress of her own illness coupled with mounting medical bills from both Kisha and Aleena make facing every day that much harder for this inspirational twosome.
Aleena is a beacon of light in Kisha's life and is showing steady improvement thanks to Kisha's dedication to her daughter's recovery. Aleena's therapy goals are to be able to hold her head up at will, grasp objects, and make decisions using therapy switch toys. "She's nonvocal and most likely will remain [that way] so learning other ways of communicating is very essential for her growth," Kisha told us.
Part of communicating for Aleena is being able to freely move her body and control subtle hand, arm, and body movements. To accomplish this, over the past year Kisha has been trying to acquire a very unique wearable therapy tool called Therasuit for her daughter. The expensive outfit is designed to "improve and change proprioception (pressure from the joints, ligaments, muscles), reduce patient's pathological reflexes, restore physiological muscle synergies and load the entire body with weight," the Therasuit website claims.
After speaking with Kisha, it was obvious that she was a mother who would stop at nothing to give her daughter every possible advantage at recovery regardless of what road blocks fell in her path. We are in awe of both Kisha and Aleena's spirit, so it was our honor to help them by purchasing the Therasuit.
"My long term goal for Aleena is that she's able to assist [herself] as much as possible physically. I hope soon she'll learn to walk with assistance and be able to do whatever it takes to have a healthy and happy future," Kisha wrote to us.
Holton's Heroes will be standing right by Aleena's side as she realizes her potential.
If you want to follow Aleena's journey you can on Facebook at Mommy's Cookie Monster. Also, make sure to watch her in action in the video below.
One of Holton's Heroes' recipients, Aleena, uses her Therasuit during physical therapy. She just received this gift thanks to the thousands of supporters who have donated at www.holtonsheroes.org/donate. To read about more of our heroes, click here.
“It is so difficult to find generous foundations like Holton’s Heroes who actually understand the struggle special needs families face to give the best of this world to their love ones. I am speechless and so grateful of Holton’s Heroes Foundation.”
"I hollered at the nurse to start CPR but the nurse just froze and kept repeating 'wake up' to Leila," Toula Porter says of the moment her daughter suffered an anoxic brain injury.