Eloise O'Donnell's young life was torn apart when the Gunnedah school girl started suffering seizures at the age of 10 in 2021.
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It took some time before she was officially diagnosed in 2023 with Rasmussen Encephalitis - a rare but chronic inflammatory disease that affects one half of the brain and is usually found in those aged 3 to 11.
The disease is characterised by frequent and severe seizures, mental deterioration, loss of motor skills, speech and eventual paralysis down one side of the body.
Eloise first suffered a series of epileptic episodes, where her body would convulse, froth at the mouth and turn blue, her mother Deb O'Donnell said.
"We kept calling the ambulance but by the time the ambulance came, she was fine, her obs were fine. So they never got to see what was going on," Mrs O'Donnell said.
"Eventually, I begged for an EEG [a test that measures brain activity] at Tamworth hospital so we could get her diagnosed and onto some medication because it really was frightening."
Mrs O'Donnell said her daughter went from being a quiet, shy, active child who rarely complained, to one who was very emotional, "like, she would lash out, fall to the ground, just cry, and it kept getting worse".
The seizures continued, until Eloise's eyes would remain wide open and her body would not even flinch.
Many doctors and specialists appointments later, and the Gunnedah girl was booked in for surgery with one of Sydney's top neurological surgeons, Dr Mark Dexter, on November 14, 2023, to have a section from the right side of her brain removed.
"He would like to have taken the whole right side of her brain because both left and right were seizing through surgery," Mrs O'Donnell said.
She said the family would be trying a treatment plan of medications for Eloise in an attempt to improve her condition.
If the medications do not work, the little girl will need to return to have surgery to remove the right hemisphere of her brain, meaning she would likely be paralysed down one side of her body and have to wear a brace for the rest of her life.
Eloise's father, Luke O'Donnell, who is a manager at Boggabri Coal, set-up a GoFundMe page to help the family through a very tough time. Her older sister Gracie, 15, has also taken up extra shifts at Woolworths to help ease the financial burden on her family.
"It's been an emotional rocky road for all of us," Mrs O'Donnell said, mentioning that Eloise also has an older brother named Lane.
