The Weyburn Legion Hall was packed to capacity on Saturday evening for a fundraiser to help a local family with medical expenses related to their infant daughter.
Natalie Mintenka is the young daughter of Lane and Tiffany, and the granddaughter of Terry and Pam Gutzke, and she has been diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that subjects the young girl to prolonged bouts of seizures.
Around 270 tickets for supper were sold for Saturday night, and there were several items for sale by live and silent auction, with entertainment provided by singer Mandy Meyson (Szczecinski) and her band.
During the evening, Tiffany explained how her baby came to be diagnosed with this disease, noting there were no problems at first, until she had her first seizure on June 5, lasting about 20 minutes. Their doctor looked Natalie over and had an MRI done, and she was sent home, until about five weeks later she had a second seizure, and after that the seizures started occurring with more frequency and for longer periods of time, until she was having seizures that lasted for an hour and a half.
The medication she had first been placed on didn’t work, and a new medication was tried, while she was spending more and more time in hospital.
Doing research on-line, Tiffany found that the symptoms seemed to be consistent with Dravet Syndrome, which is a severe epileptic condition for which there is no cure.
When the second medication didn’t seem to be working at all, Natalie was put onto a high-fat low-carb keto diet, and she seemed to be doing better, well enough to be home for Christmas and New Year’s. However, four days into the new year, Natalie was back in hospital, and it was determined she has a gene mutation, and then on March 4 she had her longest seizure, severe enough to require transport by the STARS air ambulance to the Royal University Hospital.
Tiffany thanked the large crowd for their support of the family as they work through this situation.
“It means the world to us because of the support you’ve given us. We’ll use the support to provide her with the care and the diet she needs,” she said, noting there were many people who came forward to make the fundraising evening a reality, including her sister Tallie, who acted as the emcee for the evening.
