Indy's Therapy Dog for Epileptic Seizure Alerts

Over the past almost 7 years the Wedderburn Family have been coming to terms with the fact that one of their daughters was not like the other two. She is fun, energetic and hilariously funny at the best of times; however, she isn’t like any other neuro typical child.

I feel we should all be aware of the Severity of the fight that little 8year old Indy has to face and fight every single day.

At just 1year old, Indy was diagnosed with a severe case of Epilepsy. Partial complex cognitive epilepsy with a combination of 6 different seizure types at any one time initially.

This was February 2013. From that point on it was an absolute whirlwind of becoming part of the furniture in the brain ward at Sydney children’s hospital. Trialling many, many medications to try and help and control the sever seizures to absolutely no avail.

Her family were told she was in the 1% of epileptics and it was a more than complex case with no textbook answer. As no medication was working for Indy and her seizures were progressing and getting worse.

Thankfully though, at this young age Indy had never progressed to the severity of full tonic-clonic convulsions being compromised with her breathing and functions as yet.

In December 2013, she had her first major brain surgery to remove 1/3 of her brain form the left side to attempt to get in front of her epilepsy and save her life.

Whilst the surgery was deemed successful the prognosis was it would be not a matter of “if” but “when” her seizures would get to a point where they would look at removing the rest of the left side of her brain, and that she was as severe as seizing every 60-90 seconds at this point.
Her left side of her brain is smaller than the right and she has also been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as well.

Just recently Indy has received a secondary epilepsy diagnosis, one of the rarest in the world. only accounting for no more than 3%worldwide.

Indy’s seizures for the past year and a bit have been progressively developing in strength, frequency and length, and was continually concerning for her parents and neurology team, with very noticeable regression at school and at home.

Fast forward to the 8th of June 2019. Not long after sitting down for dinner, Indy dropped whilst playing lego on her mat and convulsed for 11minutes without medical intervention able to be administered.

It's Safe to say this was a terrifying and traumatising time for not just her parents, but 10-year-old sister Kylah and her 3-year-old Pypah-Joy who could only stand and watch their sister hurting and their parents panicking at the time hoping that Indy would come out of the convulsion.

She was taken quickly by ambulance to Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick.

Once in hospital Indy was there for a week and her team frantically tried to get in front of her epilepsy once again as they always knew this would be a reality at some point of life.

The only temporary relief at this point is adding in multiple medications, including very high dose steroids. Which in turn gives her full immune system suppression and also affects her internal organs which cannot be seen efficiently without invasive tests or side effects being noticed.

Safe to say the family has been living in a bubble to ensure Indy does not get sick, something as small as a temperature of 38degrees can result in life threatening adrenal crisis for her little body.

Indy’s secondary diagnosis has only been recently confirmed due to the events of the past three months and multiple scans and tests frequently on her.

It is called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or LGS.

As mentioned above it is one of the rarest in the world, also known to be therapy and anti-epileptic resistant for what reason is not known.

However, it does explain that to date Indy has failed 14 medications and counting. Her seizures are getting worse and progressing and also new types of seizures are happening to her on a daily basis for some.

Little Indy is at high risk of mortality in her sleep!!!!

Which you can only begin to imagine the nightmare as a parent that Megan & Ryan are living everyday with their little girl.

Her team is gearing up for that second round of brain surgery with them meeting to discuss in October and set it out.

Whilst this is a major, major surgery for little Indyana, it is her best option for relief however it does not come without its side effects.

As a definite Indy will become legally blind, loosing complete external outside vision in both eyes (blinkers on) and loose her right-hand functionality at a bare minimum. Again, as if the epilepsy isn’t devastating enough to deal with.

We are trying to raise money for a seizure alert assistance dog, this dog will alleviate a lot of stress and pressure the family feel and most importantly Indyana on a daily basis and help improve her quality of life. Her family and her medical team which consists of up to 12 people at any given time are working hard to help this little warrior and going through the book from a-z of possibilities for her but to no avail as what they do know is this type of epilepsy is dangerous and does not work with medical intervention.

A seizure alert dog will at a worst-case scenario give Indy and her carers a 60second warning ensuring Indy can get into the safe recovery position before the seizure starts. On average the warning is anywhere from 4-15minutes which is just beyond life changing whilst trying to battle with this disease. Indy suffers multiple seizures a day and is more vulnerable and at risk at night. The fear instilled in her family at this point is just unimaginable to those who do not battle the front.

The dog will give her companionship, independence ensuring she can learn to be safe not just with her parents but anyone who cares for her at home or in the wider community. Right now, everything is on her parents and they are not allowed to leave her with anyone as they are the only ones besides medical professionals allowed to administer her rescue medications due to the complications it can also cause on her little body.
This service dog will give the whole family a little bit of independence and normality back into their lives, especially since it has been beyond restricted the past few months and will continue to do so for quite some time. Especially at night time, Indy’s night activity is very much unstable and can eventuate at any point during the night, without warning.

Whilst there are plenty of epilepsy monitors out there, none for her type or without being hooked up to possibly 4/5 monitors and leads and chords at night hoping that it picks up any of the 10 types of seizures this little girl can suffer. There is also no guarantee these will work either as mostly it is only big convulsing episodes tracked and alerted and she is not heavy enough in weight capacity for those alert mats either.

Once Indy has surgery, her service dog can and will also be trained as an assistance for vision (guide dog) for her again factoring in some major changed and adaptations she will have to make at barely 8 years old.

This service dog will also become her best friend.


The government won’t help as the NDIA don't see epilepsy as a debilitating or devastating disease and disability to live with! i'm sure one look at the above and yu can clearly see how wrong they have it.

So I am trying to help my friend and her family the best way I can.

Megan as I said before tirelessly advocates for her child and all others with disabilities.

Over the years Megan has not only championed for Indy but has been involved in many personal fundraisers for Sydney children’s hospital. She has specifically raised money on multiple occasions to buy much needed equipment with Indy’s name on it to donate to her ward to help others. Now it’s time for that good work to be returned to help her little princess!!


Please dig deep people, I know we all have our own battles day in day out, but every little bit will hopefully add up and we can all help this family and this special little girl.
xx