Seven-year-old Liza Scott is a spunky kid and full of energy.
She’s in good spirits despite receiving devastating news several weeks ago that turned her whole world upside-down.
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That news is what brought Liza and her family from Homewood, Alabama, to Boston Children’s Hospital.
“About a month ago she had some pretty massive seizures,” Liza’s mother, Elizabeth Scott said. “She actually has three structural malformations in her brain.”
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The malformations are a rare, life-threatening condition. One brain malformation is a cleft in the brain, another is a bundle of blood vessels and the third is caused by faulty connections between a vein and an artery.
The diagnosis is crushing for Liza’s family, whose family business, Savages Bakery in Homewood, is already struggling financially during the pandemic.
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“Something like this as a parent kind of makes you hit rock bottom,” Scott said.
Instead of just watching her mom struggle to pay her medical costs, Liza decided to help.
Liza set up a lemonade stand at the family bakery to help pay for medical costs. The more people who hear Liza’s story, the more lemonade she sells.
“I've sold lots of lemonade,” Liza said.
She adds: “I just put sugar in it with water and I mix it and that's it,” Liza said.
The family has also raised more than $300,000 from an online campaign as Liza’s story goes viral.
“It's easy to ask why bad things happen to good people but there's a lot of good out there,” said Scott.
Liza needs at least two or three brain surgeries, including one she underwent Monday at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Her grandfather said her life is in doctors’ hands now.
“Hoping for the best for her. It would break her mom's heart if we had a bad outcome,” Mr. Scott said.
“There are so many unknowns. But the goal is to let her live a normal life,” said Ms. Scott.
Liza's first surgery went well on Monday, her mother said, and the first thing she asked for when she woke up was a strawberry smoothie. It's expected to be the hardest surgery of them all, with the next possible in several more weeks.
