Love and Support for Winnie Shupe
Winnifred Cally Rae Shupe (Winnie, Winn, Winnie Woo, Mini Winnie, Freddy) was born on September 6, 2019. Her parents, Mariah and Preston Shupe and their families and friends were overjoyed for the arrival of their perfect, beautiful little girl.
Preston, Mariah, Winnie, and Scout moved back to Herentals, Belgium in October as Preston plays professional hockey there.
On November 11, Winnie began having seizures and was admitted into the hospital in Herentals. This was Mariah and Prestons first update:
“We are in the hospital in Belgium with our little Winnie and are asking for everyone to send Winnie all their good thoughts and prayers. She has been having seizures and has been diagnosed with Epilepsy but the doctors cannot find the cause. It has been a long few days for us and we ask for you send us all some strength in this time. We love you all. All our energy is going into Winnie so please don't respond because we already know how special we are to you or else you wouldn't have gotten this message. We love you all.”
After being in the hospital in Herentals for 24 hours the doctors there decided to transfer them to the University Hospital in Leuven. They are in one of the best hospitals in Europe with a great team of doctors and nursers.
This last week has been an emotional roller coaster for Mariah, Preston, Winnie and their families. The hospital has been running test after test and monitoring Winnie to find the cause of her seizures. Unfortunately, in doing so, they found a much more serious issue with Winnie’s heart.
This was Mariah’s update on Friday, November 15:
“The doctors believe they have gotten Winnie’s seizures under control with medication now. We had a couple of long days and nights trying to get her in the right combination. Unfortunately, as we started to move onto further testing to figure out the cause of the seizures they found a more serious problem in Winnie’s heart. Which came to us and the doctors as a complete shock. She has heart muscle disease. Basically one of the most important muscles in her heart did not develop properly and she is unable to pump enough blood out of her heart. The doctors have put her on medication to help ease the stress of the heart but unfortunately there is really no fix. They are continuing with testing to determine the sure cause. It is most likely a genetic issue she was born with so they are starting genetic testing on her ASAP. Once they determine this cause they can make a plan for therapy.
Currently the hope is to get Winnie stable enough to get her back to Canada so she can be closer to family as well as for insurance purposes. But whether this can happen and also a sure prognosis isn’t available to us right now so we just have to hope we get some more clear information from further tests. We feel blessed to be in such an amazing hospital with an amazing team of doctors and nursers working non stop to try to help Winnie, as well as our friends here who have been doing everything possible to help us and be here for us. We are obviously completely shattered with this news and really have no words. Winnie is still in great spirits. This week she has started to smile and coo at us tons which is about the only thing that gets us through the days. Our parents are currently on our there way over to be with us and help us in anyway possible in the coming weeks. Please keep Winnie in your thoughts and prayers. “
My name is Aly Bell. Mariah is my best friend. I’ve created this GoFundMe page to help Mariah and Preston with all of the funds that are going to be needed to keep supporting and treating Winnie. Especially the costs that could come up in the upcoming journey. They will be staying in Belgium with their amazing team of doctors and nursers until Winnie is stable enough to come home to Canada. The future for them is really unknown and they are just going day by day hoping to find our more through testing.
If you’re unable to donate money, please send all ofyour positive thoughts, prayers, love, and light to this little family; and especially to little Winnie.
