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Family stories

What this actually looks like from inside a family

Statistics make the case. Stories make it real. These are the trajectories we exist to change — and the ones we hope to be able to rewrite for the families who come to us.

About the stories below. These three are composite illustrations — profiles assembled from patterns documented in the published clinical literature and in advocacy reports. They are not real individual patients, and identifying details are fictional. As families we serve choose to share their own experiences with us, their stories will appear here in their own words, with their written permission. We will always label which is which.

Composite illustration · Age 6

“Ella” — the overnight change

A thriving kindergartner. Then a strep infection, and within two weeks a different child.

What happened

She began washing her hands until they bled, refused foods that "felt wrong," and had violent hour-long rage episodes unlike anything her parents had seen. Her handwriting deteriorated. She stopped sleeping alone.

The path through today's system

Her pediatrician referred her to a child psychologist for "sudden-onset OCD." Six months and four providers later — including an ER visit during a rage episode — a parent's own online research led them to request a strep titer. No local clinic offered a coordinated evaluation.

The path we are building

A single intake triggers a same-week multidisciplinary evaluation: infectious workup and exam, immunology review, and a psychiatric and behavioral baseline.

Ella starts an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory protocol within days. ERP therapy begins in parallel. A care coordinator secures insurance authorization under AB 2105.

Elapsed time from onset to treatment: under three weeks instead of six-plus months.

Composite illustration · Age 10

“Marcus” — the severe, treatment-resistant case

Repeated infections, then severe OCD, motor tics, and suicidal statements. He could not attend school and required constant supervision.

What happened

By the time his family found a physician who recognized the pattern, they had spent over $40,000 out of pocket on evaluations and a first IVIG course that a prior insurer denied as "experimental."

Why this case is the hard one

Children like Marcus need immunomodulatory therapy delivered in a monitored setting, coordinated with psychiatric medication and intensive behavioral therapy — and someone willing to fight a denial through appeal. Almost nowhere offers all four.

The path we are building

Our licensed infusion suite delivers a monitored IVIG course in a calm, sensory-aware setting, coordinated with psychiatry and intensive ERP.

The advocacy team files the prior authorization and, when it is initially denied, wins on appeal citing AB 2105.

Over nine months Marcus returns to part-time school with a 504 plan our school liaison helped design — and the family's out-of-pocket cost drops dramatically, because the care is billed to insurance.

Composite illustration · A family of four

The whole-family toll

Two years into their daughter's illness, the parents were near financial collapse. One had left a job to provide care. Their younger son had begun showing anxiety from the chronic household stress.

What the medical chart misses

Nothing in the daughter's file records that her brother stopped inviting friends over, that her mother hasn't slept through a night in a year, or that the family's retirement account is gone. And yet those are the things that determine whether a family can keep going long enough for treatment to work.

The path we are building

Beyond the daughter's medical care, the family enters the wellbeing program: parent-training groups, a sibling support track for their son, a financial and insurance navigation plan, and a peer-mentor family who has already been through it.

The outcome families in this position report most often is not a lab value. It's a sentence: "we are a family again."

What these stories have in common

Every service in these accounts already exists somewhere in the healthcare system. What does not exist in Southern California is one place that compresses diagnosis, delivers infusion therapy, wraps the family in support, and fights the insurance battle on the family's behalf.

That integration is the whole product. It is also the difference between a six-month odyssey and a three-week one — and in these conditions, that difference is often the difference in outcome.

See how the model works

Share your story

If your family has lived this, your story can shorten someone else's search. Parents who read a story that sounds like their own child often bring the right question to their pediatrician weeks or months sooner.

Sharing is entirely your choice, and you control how much appears. We will never publish your name, your child's name, a photograph, or any medical detail without your explicit written permission — and you can withdraw that permission at any time, for any reason, and we'll take the story down.

Tell us your story

Ways families share

  • Written story — in your own words, any length
  • Anonymous or first-name-only — many families choose this
  • Video or audio — for families who'd rather talk than write
  • Peer mentorship — talk directly with a family just starting out
  • Advocacy — testify, speak at events, meet legislators

A note on privacy. Your child's medical information belongs to your family. Please don't send detailed medical records through a web form — we'll set up a secure channel if your story moves forward.

Real family stories

Coming soon.

As families we work with choose to share their experiences, their stories will appear here in their own words, with their written permission.

Share yours