Horse-kicking accident leaves local girl immobile

The lives of 10-year-old Jessica Baldwin-Lavine and her family changed traumatically on what was supposed to be a routine day.Now the little girl has been left immobilized and without the ability to speak.On April 29, Jessica was preparing for her weekly horse-riding lesson, when another horse wanted to be ridden and got in front of Jessica's horse, Katie."Katie moved out of the way as a natural instinct because she knew she would be kicked and left Jessica unprotected," said Jolene Lavine, Jessica's mother.Jessica was kicked on the right side of her head. She is now suffering from severe traumatic brain injury."Jessica had never worked with the horse and it was considered one of the safest horses out there," Jolene said.The long-time Folsom family, who now live in Orangevale, does not blame the horse or the stable. She said it was just a terrible accident. Jolene said she wanted to keep the local horse stable unnamed."Horses are live animals, it's a risk you are taking when you are dealing with a large live animal," she said.Jessica was rushed to a nearby hospital in an ambulance minutes after the accident. She was immediately taken into surgery where a portion of her skull was removed to allow her brain to swell, Jolene said."I was at the barn, but didn't see it happen luckily," she said. "I knew it was serious and severe, but I didn't understand how traumatic the brain injury was."Jessica was in the hospital for seven weeks before returning home on June 19 to her family including Jolene, her father Jesse and her 2-year-old sister Jocelyn.Jolene said Jessica is currently receiving in-home physical and occupational therapy. She has one-hour sessions four days a week. Currently, Jessica is not walking or talking."She is fed through a tube in her stomach," she said. "But, she is there. She recognizes us and remembers people. She moves her hand and smiles. We are very hopeful."Jessica has long-term memory. The family's goal is to get her into inpatient therapy two times a day for six days a week. This care would also include a speech therapist."She needs to be stimulated more. She needs to be in a place where therapy will accommodate her more," Jolene said. "I believe that she can recover. The brain is an amazing thing. I believe in miracles."Recently, the word "miracle" has appeared in her vocabulary more than once.After the Folsom and Orangevale communities heard about Jessica's accident, they began providing support in more ways than one.The first major gift of help they received was a website for Jessica put together by friends. The intention of the website was to bring awareness to the severity of the accident and help that was needed.Jolene said 40 people signed up to help take care of household and family needs that she could not attend to while caring for Jessica in the hospital."It's been really overwhelming, all of the support everyone has given," she said. "I knew that my daughter was the most amazing person, but I didn't know everyone else thought so also."Jolene said the support carried onto her younger daughter as well."The person who gets lost in all of this is Jocelyn," she said. The weekend after the accident, Geriba Parcon, a family friend and private in-home daycare owner, took Jocelyn for the weekend to help out. Soon after, Brighton Schools of Folsom offered their services, Jolene said.Jolene said she asked to have the accident posted on MyFolsom.com, a local social networking website. When people learned about the accident, help started lining up.Jeff Look with Sunshine Services donated time and labor to help install five ramps for the family, allowing Jessica the ability to go outside in her wheelchair."I told (Look) we would need a quote from him. He didn't quote us, he just came in and did it," Jolene said. "He installed part of the ramps when we were in the hospital and the rest the day after we came home."While changes were made to the front yard, the back yard was still an issue for Jolene. She said her overgrown yard was in need of not only a renovation, but also a patio that was accessible for Jessica.She said the family had put the renovation off because of the costs.Jolene said Look posted a request for help online and more than a dozen people came out to help him dig out the space to pour the concrete to create a patio in the back yard. Many other people helped by donating money.To raise money for the family to help offset medical costs, Barbra Jacobs decided to have a pasta feed fundraiser with food provided by Strings of Folsom. The evening will include a no-host bar, raffle and a silent auction. All proceeds will benefit the Jessica Baldwin Lavine Fundraiser Account."This is a very special girl, this could happen to any child," Jacobs said. "This is something that the community can do that will have long lasting effects."Jolene said the family is currently unsure about their insurance."We are not even sure what our costs are going to be, but we know that her therapy will be a major expense in the future," she said.The Folsom Mounted Patrol volunteered to greet people at the fundraiser on horses."I can't express my thanks enough to the Folsom community. I wish I had touched as many hearts when I was 10 years old as she did. We are definitely keeping score so we can return the favors," Jolene said. "There is no way I could have done this on my own."For more information on Jessica and how to help, visit vivalajessica.com.