A seven-year-old girl with narcolepsy needs $15,000 to train her new puppy to wake her if she stops breathing during the night.
Maddie Jordan, from Tennessee, suffers from sleep apnea, narcolepsy and asthma, and after a worrying incident at a playground at Waverly Belmont Elementary School her parents decided she needed help.
The youngster was hanging from some monkey bars when she fell asleep and dropped to the ground.
Due to the severity of her condition, the more orthodox treatments would be rendered useless, so Maddie is now the proud owner of Hershey the Labrador puppy.
Senetra Johnson Jordan and her daughter Maddie Jordan with their new service dog Hershey. The youngster, who suffers from narcolepsy, is desperately trying to raise money to train Hersehy to detect when she stops breathing in the night
Maddie , from Antioch, Tennessee, suffers from sleep apnea, narcolepsy and asthma
In order to get the dog up to speed in terms of training, it will cost $15,000 and will take up to 18 months.
Talking of the incident at the school, Maddie’s mother Senetra Johnson Jordan told News Channel 5: ‘As a parent, it was a big wake up call. All types of signs and flashing warning signs and my mind was like, this has to be done now, and I need some help.’
Hershey (pictured) will have to be trained up to wake Maddie up if she stops breathing
The youngster said: ‘My hand was just hanging on, and then I fell. I was crying on the ground. It was scary.’
Having sought the advice of doctors, they advised a service dog was the only option.
The pair are now in the bonding stage of the training, which is going to be a push for the Jordans.
Maddie told Channel 5: ‘She’s great, but sometimes she nibbles on me… Sometimes she licks on my face and it’s salty and fishy
‘She like nibbles under my pillow and I was like, “Ohhh”. She was telling me a sign that I was doing something.’
Hershey will have to learn to listen to the amount of times Maddie coughs, and if it falls below a certain level the dog will have to wake her because there is a good chance the seven-year-old will have stopped breathing.
Both Senetra and her husband Tolbert work in education and cannot afford the fees of the service dog. To donate, visit their GoFundMe page.
Maddie’s condition has often left her in danger and has caused her serious injury. She once fell asleep in the middle of climbing a set of monkey bars