New bed offers safety to disabled woman

When Medicaid twice denied a SleepSafe Bed for Mikayla Wisher, her family, friends, community and many strangers stepped up.

Mikayla Wisher is a 21-year-old Kalispell woman who can neither speak nor walk and who suffers multiple seizures and uncontrolled movement,

Sabrina Wisher, Mikayla’s mom, said she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love .

“Strangers [have been] coming up to me and giving me hundreds of dollars,” she said. “The community and my family and friends have been huge.”

Since posting Mikayla’s story and bed need on Facebook, Sabrina and Mikayla received more than $15,000 along with donations for a raffle of a rifle from Montana Rifleman and a pistol from Kimber. When a SleepSafe salesman relayed her story, the bed company’s board voted to give her the $8,000 bed.

“The cool thing is everyone Mikayla has touched — and my daughter doesn’t even speak,” Sabrina said. “This is such a God thing. People keep giving and giving.”

After the bed donation for Mikayla, Sabrina set up a foundation to buy similar beds for other disabled Montana children. She recently purchased a secondhand SleepSafe bed as a surprise for a disabled Montana boy.

“I’m going to take care of these families that the state is so ignorant about,” she said.

A determined woman, Sabrina devoted her life to saving Mikayla, after brain scans when she was 2 1/2 months old showed cysts and indicated the middle structure of her brain was missing. That structure allows the right side to communicate with the left.

Physicians diagnosed it as a rare female genetic condition called Aicardi Syndrome and predicted she would die before her first birthday.

To keep Mikayla alive, Sabrina nurtured her through dozens of bouts with pneumonia before she was 5. She rises every morning around 4 a.m. to hook up her daughter’s feeding tube and get her prepared for the day and herself ready for her job at Wisher’s Auto Recycling, owned by her parents.

An aide takes care of Mikayla while Sabrina works. In the evening, Sabrina takes over again, including putting her in the hospital-style bed that she asked Medicaid to replace.

“My daughter has had the same bed since she was three years old and my daughter is 21,” she said. “Her needs with her disability have changed. She’s rolling and getting entrapped between the bars.”

She said that she puts padding in place but Mikayla tears it off. A leg or arm often falls between the bars and her head has come close.

“My fear, of course, is that she could get entrapped and kill herself,” she said.

Consulting with Mikayla’s doctor and therapist, Sabrina determined that the SleepSafe Bed provided the best protection. Built to FDA standards, the bed has a solid head and foot board, sides with windows and an electric articulating (moving) mattress that fits tightly inside the frame to eliminate entrapment.

“Unfortunately, it’s expensive and state Medicaid doesn’t pay for this particular bed,” she said. “All around us, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, California and some Eastern states — they all do.”

Sabrina said she could have requested a new bed every five years under Medicaid rules but made do with the first one purchased. In her pleas for the bed, she submitted photos of Mikayla with her legs caught in the various bars.

When she was denied the bed, she appealed the decision and was denied a second time. She said state officials said everyone would want this bed if they approved it for Mikayla.

Sabrina was particularly angry over the remark that the electric feature of this bed was “a convenience” to her.

“I’m 5-3 and 140 pounds and my daughter is 5-3 and 120 pounds,” she said. “There’s really no convenience with my daughter. She’s non-ambulatory, non-verbal. She’s completely dependent on me.”

She said she challenged the people, including an assistant attorney general at the hearing, to come and do what she does for a day. Sabrina also points out that she complied with Medicaid guidelines her whole life and has saved the state a lot of money by caring for her daughter at home.

“I could have awarded her to the state and walked away and they would be paying way more,” she said. “If I hurt my back, she would go into a home and they would be paying for me for disability. It’s very frustrating because you want the help and do everything by the book. People that take advantage make it harder for us.”

For the first few weeks after the appeal hearing she had some hope. While the board turned her request down, it encouraged Medicaid officials to work with her find a solution.

“They didn’t help. Absolutely not,” she said. “They basically said, ‘Put Mikayla on a mattress on the floor.’”

Even worse, she said she didn’t find out that no help was coming until three days before the next appeal period expired. Sabrina said she couldn’t get another appeal together in time.

But as she has for 21 years, she didn’t give up the battle.

Sabrina put out her story along with pictures on a Facebook page, “A Bed for Mikayla,” where it was seen by family, friends and local groups such as the Lions and Elks, as well as people she had never met. Many were moved to help.

Money came in along with donations of a benefit raffle first prize of a .338 Lapua rifle from Montana Rifleman and a second prize of a Super Carry Pro pistol from Kimber with .45 ammo from Pat and Roni Mahar. Raffle tickets sell for $20 or six for $100 at Wisher’s Auto Recycling, West One bank locations, Northwest Shooter, Bradford’s Balance and Machine, and Snappy Sport Senter.

The drawing takes place Friday, Oct. 19. Friends also organized a rummage sale last Saturday.

Money raised by these activities benefits the new foundation Sabrina founded to buy these special beds for disabled people who can’t secure them from Medicaid. Sabrina said she wants to help those who “don’t have the get-up-and-go” that she has to advocate for her daughter, who will receive her bed in a few weeks.

Sabrina’s first gift bed was purchased from a family in the South who lost their disabled son. Along with providing another disabled Montana person with a safe bed, the money from the sale allowed the bereaved mother to buy her son a headstone.

“This is just the beginning,” Sabrina said. “We’re going to make a difference.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.