15-year-old brings safe toys to epilepsy patients at St. Alexius in Hoffman Estates
The visitors came bearing gifts, with volunteers pulling carts piled high with toys, books and blankets. Skates, the Chicago Wolves mascot, tagged along.
At the center of the group on the fourth floor of St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates
was 15-year old Brendan Leyden of Chicago, who has made it his mission to visit children's hospitals that treat epilepsy patients and supply them with seizure-safe toys.
“It's not something you normally think about,” Leyden said, “but toys that are sharp or have ragged edges can provide a hazard for children with epilepsy if they fall on them.”
Leyden started a foundation four years ago in honor of his cousin, Emmett, who was diagnosed with epilepsy as a toddler. His organization, Help the ELF, or Emmett Leyden's Friends, now partners with the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago, which helps him draw hundreds of donations through social media. Already, Leyden has delivered toys to Children's Memorial, Central DuPage and Advocate Lutheran General hospitals.
They came to St. Alexius as a result of its new Epilepsy Center, which opened in November. The unit includes an epilepsy monitoring system, which offers prolonged, continuous EEG monitoring that is fed to Rush University Medical Center, where it is read and interpreted.
“We're one of the few suburban hospitals to offer this type of continuous feed monitoring system,” said Wende Fedder, clinical director of St. Alexius' Neuroscience Institute. “It allows us to diagnose and treat epilepsy without our patients having to drive to the city.”
Leyden and his family first visited a pediatric specialty clinic at St. Alexius that treats children with epilepsy. It is run by Dr. Hossam AbdelSalam, a pediatric neurologist.
Leyden presented 6-year old Edward Spangler of Hoffman Estates with a bucket of plastic building blocks as well as a stuffed animal and matching blanket. His mother, Colleen, said the toys were perfect for her active son.
“Our playroom is lined with stuffed animals,” she said. “That's our biggest concern, cushioning his fall when he has a seizure.”'
Leyden's cousin, Emmett, had up to 200 seizures a day, and had to be strapped into a chair. The idea for the seizure-safe toys came up after a family portrait session, when he had a seizure and fell into the sharp edge of his favorite toy, leaving a lump on his forehead.
“Every time we look at that photo, we are reminded of the need for safe toys,” said Emmett's mother, Erin Leyden, a vice president with the Epilepsy Foundation.
Brendan Leyden reported that support for his foundation is growing.
“This is by far my most successful year,” he says. Even better, his cousin has not had a seizure in nearly three years and is a healthy 7-year-old.