CROWD-FUNDING CAMPAIGN TO PURCHASE A NEURONODE FOR QUADRIPLEGIC JESSICA NIELSEN
Hello, I’m Dave Gardy, CEO of TV Worldwide, a network of Internet TV channels targeted to different professional disciplines and advocacy areas. One of those channels, WebAble TV, serves the community of people with disabilities with accessible programming on subject matter of interest to that community.
We are outreaching to that community and for that matter to all our Internet TV channel audiences to seek support for a campaign to help a very special young lady, Jessica Nielsen. In May 2017, Jessica fulfilled one of her lifelong dreams by beginning service as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. After three weeks in the Missionary Training Center, she flew to Long Beach, California in June where she anticipated serving for a period of 18 months.
On the morning of September 15, 2017, Jessica fainted after showering, lost her pulse, and stopped breathing. MRI scans showed large areas of infection in her skull. Over the next several days, she lost all sensation and ability to move—first in her arms and then in her legs. Subsequent scans showed that extensive damage had developed over a few days to the neural tissue in the spinal cord at the base of her brain (most likely a spinal cord stroke). Although the doctors aren't entirely sure how it happened, the end result is that she is completely paralyzed from the neck down.
Jessica was transported back to the east coast in November, where she began intensive inpatient rehabilitation program at the Kennedy-Krieger Institute in Baltimore. She is now home in Virginia under 24/7 care. While she still can't breathe on her own, move, or even swallow, Jessica is working very hard. She has a powerful spirit and she remains optimistic about being able to recover some function eventually.
When we at WebAble TV learned of Jessica’s condition we contacted one of our channel sponsors, Control Bionics, an award-winning company that makes a state-of-the-art device known as the NeuroNode wearable Electromyography (EMG) assistive technology solution.This amazing wearable device gives those with ALS/MND, spinal cord injury, or any other condition causing paralysis and loss of speech a connection to the world by detecting the electrical potential generated by muscle cells when these cells are electrically or neurologically activated. We wanted to see if this technology could assist Jessica. Rob Wong, CEO of Control Bionics flew in to visit Jessica in Virginia and after several additional visits, Jessica was outfitted with this NeuroNode technology for a trial period. It now allows her to send emails, access social media, text message, watch and download online entertainment, and even operate external devices.
In response we at WebAble TV are initiating a crowd funding campaign to raise the $13,000 needed to purchase the NeuroNode for Jessica so that she can use it permanently. As an added incentive if we are successful in raising the money needed to buy the NeuroNode for Jessica, Control Bionics has graciously agreed to donate another complete NeuroNode system to the Kennedy Kreiger Institute where Jessica did her initial rehabilitation therapy, so that other patients can benefit from this amazing technology.
Won’t you please help us in our WebAble TV crowd-funding campaign to purchase the NeuroNode for Jessica and have Control Bionics match it with a separate donation of a NeuroNode to the Kennedy Krieger Institute? Any amount you can donate is sincerely appreciated to help us reach our goal. Instructions for submitting your donations are included on the web site hosting this video. On behalf of everyone here at WebAble TV and Control Bionics, thank-you for your consideration. |