Family scrambles to raise money for service dog after child goes missing – 11Alive.com WXIA

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ATLANTA — A 12-year-old in metro Atlanta is getting ready for her third brain surgery due to a genetic condition that causes her to have seizures daily, leaving her disoriented and scared, sometimes wandering away from home alone.
Her parents want to find her a specially trained service dog, but coupled with their daughter’s medical bills, the costs are just too high. And unfortunately, their insurance won’t help either. 
“As a parent of a medically fragile child, the system is definitely broken,”  her mother, Elizabeth Pegg, said. “We are looking at her third brain surgery soon, and they would rather cover those type of things instead of a preventive measure.”
And right now, all Rinnie Pegg really wants is to be able to go to a sleepover with friends, but given her condition, it makes being away from home that long impossible.
“She is just desperate for independence, as any 12 year old girl would be,” Elizabeth said.
Rinnie was adopted at three and a half; a few weeks later, she was diagnosed with a genetic condition that causes tumors to grow on all her major organs, heart, brain and skin. It also causes seizures that get worse with time. 
In September, Rinnie had a seizure alone and went missing for three hours. Hundreds of people came out to look, and when she was finally found, she didn’t have shoes on, and her feet were bloody. 
“It was terrifying,” Elizabeth said. “I think that was a defining point in our reality of her in the direction the disease is taking.
Her mom said this is a safety issue and that getting a service dog would help keep her safe. A service dog would stay with Rinnie, even if she wandered off.
The specially trained service dog would cost more than $25,000 out of pocket, and since insurance doesn’t cover any of the cost, Elizabeth is determined to get her daughter more independence, and they know a service dog will help her get there.
“Figuring out how we are going to move on from this and keep moving forward in protecting her,” she said.
 A family friend started an online fundraiser to try and get Rinnie, a service dog. 
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