Welcome to my Maggie page.

Maggie is my granddaughter and she was born six weeks premature. It is more accurate to say that she was taken by C-section six weeks early on March 19, 2007 because she was dying in the womb. The picture above was taken while she was still in the neonatal intensive care unit at Palmetto Richland Hospital in Columbia, SC. Here are some facts about Maggie:

  1. As you can see Maggie is a beautiful child.
  2. Maggie weighed 4 lbs and 13 ozs when she was delivered in the Lexington County Medical Center. She was immediately sent to the neonatal intensive care unit at Palmetto Richland hospital in Columbia.
  3. She was born with taunt muscles and stiff joints.
  4. The early diagnoses made by the doctors was that she had a genetic disorder. Several genetic studied have failed to substantiate that diagnosis.
  5. She went home in May, 2007.
  6. She receives physical, occupational, and speech therapy regularly.
  7. To date she remains an undiagnosed child. Her prognosis and life expectancy are unknown.
  8. She has a tracheotomy to breath. That makes her very suseptable to infections because the trac causes her air to bypass all the natural buffers in the mouth, nose and throat that filter out the carriers of infections. She has already had to fight off a bout of pneumonia that put her back into the pediatric intensive care unit at Richland Hospital for more than a week.
  9. She has a feeding tube for nourishment.
  10. Maggie is unable to swallow or even suck. She also has little or no control over her facial muscles or the muscles in her mouth and throat.
On August 11, 2007 a benefit was held for Maggie to collect money for her care. The benefit was conceived and planned by one of Susan's teacher friends at Pleasant Hill School in Lexington School District 1. The benefit was very successful and a significant amount of money was raised. But, additional money will still be needed to help cover the costs of transporting Maggie and all the medical equipment required to sustain her in transient.

All money donated for Maggie's medical care is administered by the Lexington School District 1 Education Foundation. None of the funds go directly to her family. It can only be used for Maggie's care.

Maggie needs stem cell treatment with stem cells from umbilical cord blood to treat her neurological problems. Unfortunately, that kind of stem cell treatment, even though it does not involve embryonic stem cells, is not available in the United States because of the politics surrounding stem cell research.

On October 24, 2007 her parents flew Maggie to San Diego, California in hopes of taking her to Mexico for stem cell treatment. Respiratory problems along with the all the fires broke out in California and around San Diego made it impossible for her to go to Mexico to receive the treatments. She had to be evacuated back to Columbia and admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at Richland Hospital. She returned home within a few days.

Perhaps the advances in stem cell research using skin cells will finally bring an end to the ethical issues and Maggie, along with others who can benefit from stem cell treatment, can finally get the treatments closer to home.

Financial gifts may be sent to:

Lexington School District One Education Foundation
(That can be abbreviated as "LSD1 Ed. Foundation")
c/o Maggie Cafferty Fund
PO Box 1869
Lexington, SC 29071

Thank you

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