Community pulls together for Schafers

The signs reading “Pray for Maddie” and “Power of Prayer,” have been up on Indian Trail Road since December.

But who is Maddie, and why does she need your prayers?

Maddie Schafer is a beautiful brown-eyed 10-year-old. She’s the youngest daughter of Mark and Kim Schafer and the sister of Amanda and Cassie Schafer. She’s a fourth-grader at Woodridge Elementary School, a soccer player, and, according to her mom, she’s “a tough little cookie.”

Maddie needs to be tough. She’s spent the past 13 weeks in pediatric intensive care, first at Deaconess Medical Center and now at Sacred Heart’s Children’s Hospital.

On Dec. 2, Maddie complained of a headache and dizziness; all she wanted to do was sleep. Four days later she was rushed to the hospital after having a severe seizure.

Photos taped to the window outside her hospital room show a spunky, wide-eyed child. They also give witness to the things she’s missed while hospitalized. There’s a photo of Santa standing next to her bed. She’s spent New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day and her 10th birthday in the hospital. Her mom now considers decorating her room for Easter.

Maddie’s seizures continued, and so she was put into a phenobarbital-induced coma to give her brain a rest.

According to Kim Schafer, the doctors are treating the symptoms. At this time, no diagnosis has been confirmed by tests and epilepsy has been ruled out. The presumption, or most probable cause, is viral encephalitis.

The goal is to gradually wean her off the Phenobarbital and bring her back to an awakened state. Neurologists from across the country have been consulted, and they say they would handle the situation the same way.

Maddie will require therapy at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute once she’s released from the hospital, and no one knows when that will be.

She has been through a lot in her young life. When she was 2½ months old she had meningitis and lost her hearing. “She was hospitalized for 12 days. Looking back, that’s nothing compared to what she’s going through now,” said Schafer.

When Maddie was 3, she received a cochlear implant, a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The implant is surgically placed under the skin behind the ear.

Maddie is fluent in sign language and vocal speech, but in order to get a better, more inclusive MRI, the cochlear implant was removed. Her mom is afraid that she may wake up and be confused about, not only where she is, but why she can’t hear.

After Schafer gets the older girls off to school, she heads to the hospital to sit with Maddie. She has taken a leave of absence from her job and hopes to be able to assist with Maddie’s physical therapy when the time comes.

Mark Schafer is a claims supervisor at Safeco Insurance Co. He’s at the hospital every day after work, and the family has dinner together at the hospital several times a week.

The Schafers are from Spokane but moved to California in 2002. However, they missed family and friends and moved back to Spokane two years later.

“If we were in California, I don’t know what we would do right now. The outpouring of support here has been amazing,” said Schafer.

Schafer said that so many people in the Indian Trail community, people they don’t even know, have helped their family.

Woodridge Elementary School parents gave them a huge basket filled with gift cards, snacks and other items to make this time easier for their family. Principal Brian Melody has visited Maddie and calls to check on her. Maddie’s friends at school gather at recess to pray for her.

And on Feb. 4, more than 250 community members gathered to pray for Maddie’s recovery at a candlelight prayer service at Assumption Catholic Church. “It was so moving. You could feel the presence of the Lord there,” said Schafer.

“The neighbors have been great. They offer to walk the dog. A single mom across the street shoveled our driveway for us,” said Schafer.

Women from Assumption’s Mothers of Ministry Sharing (MOMS) association bring the Schafers dinner every other night, and clean their house every other week.

“They’re great, just awesome. They’ve spoiled us rotten. They say that they’ve got dinners for months to come. And Woodridge school is just waiting in the wings. They ask if the church is still providing because when they’re not, they have people ready to go. It’s one less thing to think about, especially when it’s been a really tough day,” said Schafer.

On Saturday, Maddie was taken off the ventilator and is breathing on her own. The EEG is no longer connected to her head. She’s wearing her own nightgown and is beginning to look like herself again.

Once she’s weaned from the Phenobarbital, her metabolism will speed up, and she’ll be better able to use the two anti-seizure drugs.

“She needs to be functional. Chances of the seizures going away completely are probably slim to none, but if we can get the point where they can be controlled by medication, where we don’t see symptoms, then she can go home. That’s the goal to get the right medications so she can be out there going to school, playing soccer and doing those things without harm to herself,” said Schafer.