Community helps pay for 7-year-old’s special walker

When Second Merriman was born seven years ago, she was a month and half premature. At 4 pounds, 15 ounces, she was a tiny baby, but she seemed healthy.

But after a few months, Second’s mom, Minute Schwantner, noticed that Second wasn’t developing at the same rate as her cousin, who was almost the same age. She didn’t think much about it until one morning when Second did something odd.

“She woke up and she just began twitching,” said Schwantner. “She’d twitch and twitch. I knew something was wrong.”

Doctors didn’t agree. They told Schwantner that she was just an overly concerned mom.

When Second was 6 months old, Schwantner one day counted 4,000 seizures.

“And those were just the ones we could see,” Schwantner said. “I hold a lot of guilt against myself for waiting too long before we really found out what was going on with her.”

Second has a rare chromosome abnormality and epilepsy. At 7 years old, her developmental stage is that of a 1-year-old. Two years ago, she got a vagus nerve stimulator implant, which has cut her seizures to about 25 a day.

Yet she can’t talk, and she can’t walk or stand on her own.

Last fall, Second’s insurance company got her a walker.

“She just didn’t like it. She had to hold onto it, and she’s very tactile – she doesn’t like holding onto things,” Schwantner said. Someone at Riverside Elementary School, where Second attends kindergarten, borrowed a different type of walker for her – the type where the person is strapped into a harness, standing up, between big wheels.

“They put her in that and she took off walking,” said Schwantner, who choked up telling the story. “She walked 50 feet right there. I cried my eyes out. I’d never seen my child walk.”

The first walker was returned to the insurance company, but the company wouldn’t pay for a different model. Schwantner had to purchase the $3,000 walker on her own.

Schwantner’s neighbors in the Elk and Deer Park area didn’t hesitate to help her.

Janeen Leachman, executive director of New Hope Resource Center in Colbert, submitted a story to the Elk Sentinel asking for donations for Second’s walker.

“It took just about three weeks and we had all the money we needed,” Leachman said.

Second got her walker just after she turned 7 in November, and she now uses it to get around at school and at home.

“We are just so grateful. I just couldn’t believe that people would help us like that,” said Schwantner, who lives in a mobile home just north of Deer Park.

Schwantner’s mother and stepfather live in the same mobile home park, so she has some help. But Schwantner is her daughter’s primary parent and caregiver, and Second can’t be left alone.

“She’ll try and stand up, and she’ll fall so fast sometimes that I can’t catch her,” Schwantner said.

Schwantner works as an in-home care provider and a woodcutter, yet it’s hard to get by. She has also relied on New Hope for financial support.

The special education program at Riverside Elementary School is Schwantner’s main support system when it comes to accessing social services.

“They are so awesome. I have nothing but good things to say about them,” Schwantner said. “Second loves her teacher, Alanna Neis. She’s made us feel like we aren’t alone.”