11-year-old girl diagnosed with neurological disorder in need of trips to therapy amid insurance denial
11-year-old girl diagnosed with epilepsy in need of therapy
Meet 11-year-old Peyton Bennett who has been diagnosed with functional neurological disorder. She and her family are in need of help after being denied by insurance, who say she has reached her maximum number of trips for therapy. Therapy that she still needs.
PHILADELPHIA - Meet 11-year-old Peyton Bennett, full of wonder, promise and, after the last six months, bravery.
Peyton was first diagnosed with epilepsy back in February.
Her mother, Courtney Bennett, was not overly worried at first. "That was not alarming to me as a mom because my 15-year-old struggles with epilepsy, so it’s something that I have heard before," she said.
However, after a series of seizure scares, Peyton's mothers rushed her to CHOP. "Right away they ran a bunch of tests, they said you know she definitely has epilepsy and we just assumed we would get medication to treat this problem," recounted Peyton's mom.
But it's what happened next that changed their lives.
"Right when we thought we were going to get discharged, they asked us to help stand her up and she could not walk. She had no stability in her legs," she expressed.
It became clear to her doctors that there was something else going on, and after another round of testing, the neurologist on call broke the news no parent could have anticipated.
Peyton was diagnosed with functional neurological disorder.
"They abbreviate it by calling it FND, and it's basically where a part of her brain is blocking out the part that tells her body to walk," Peyton's mother explained.
Peyton's world quickly went from normal to anything but, and she was quickly admitted to CHOP’s inpatient rehab facility for about a month.
"We thought she made great progress because she did get to the point of walking back to what they would say as baseline. We were able to go home in March and we were super excited," she said.
But in June, Peyton relapsed, having four seizures in one day. Her doctors suggested outpatient therapy, but the waitlist was especially long.
"She uses these things, a gatebelt, and a walker to help her because she is not stable if there is not assistance next to her," her mother stated.
And sadly, their insurance is now making life harder for Peyton, as the intense daily therapies needed aren't all covered.
"We’re actually currently faced with the task of if she’ll be able to get back and forth to therapy because our insurance tells us we have maxed out of rides that bring her back and forth," Peyton's mother explained. "So now as parents, we are forced to choose between, do I pay a bill at home, or do I take my kid to a place where she needs to go to get back to her baseline."
Making decisions no parent ever wants to make, while getting denied by insurance and forced to appeal, but those processes can take weeks.
However, Peyton needs the help now.
"It’s tough. What do you do when one day you had this perfectly healthy child and then now we have to jump through so many hurdles that she should be allotted to have?" Peyton's mother lamented.
To support Peyton and her family during this difficult time, you can donate via GoFundMe.