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Family fundraises for woman with encephalitis
Alejandra Gonzalez's world changed completely in June 2020, and now her family is trying to help bring her home.
AUSTIN, Texas - Alejandra Gonzalez was a completely healthy mother to a 9-year-old daughter, until June 28, 2020 when Alejandra's world changed completely.
Her parents Maria and Fernando Gonzalez say she was complaining about a headache then started getting seizures. That's when they took her to the hospital.
"After two months of studies, the doctors diagnosed her with encephalitis, where she then fell into a coma," said Maria Gonzalez, Alejandra's mother, in Spanish.
Alejandra was in a coma for nearly two years. Doctors in Austin told the Gonzalez family they will have to make the heart-wrenching decision to take her off life support.
But Maria and Fernado had faith she would recover.
"When my daughter was in the hospital here in Austin, a doctor told me, it will take a miracle for your daughter to wake up from her coma," said Gonzalez, in Spanish.
Alejandra was transported to a nursing facility in San Antonio where they saw improvements, and on October 15, 2022, Alejandra surprised her family when she woke up from her coma.
"At first the doctors told us she was fighting for her life for her daughter, and every time we would visit my daughter would try to gather more strength," said Fernando Gonzalez, Alejandra's father, in Spanish.
Alejandra's nurses say having her parents there with her everyday really helped her recover.
The Gonzalez family is hoping to bring Alejandra back home to Austin, but doctors are telling them with her conditions they will need to get a wheelchair accessible van to move her around.
"We were looking at the prices of the vans, and they're very expensive," said Gonzalez.
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That's when the family got the idea to start a GoFundMe page to raise funds to buy the van to reunite Alejandra to her daughter.
"I want to take care of her more because she mostly falls off bed and I don't want her to get hurt anymore," said Alexa Torres.
If anyone can and would like to donate money to the GoFundMe you can click here.