Studio C star's daughter released from hospital, relearning how to walk and talk

Studio C star's daughter released from hospital, relearning how to walk and talk

(Courtesy of Jason Gray)


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OREM — A month and a half after surviving a life-threatening brain aneurysm, 20-month-old Alice is back at home with her parents.

The young daughter of "Studio C" star Jason Gray was released from the hospital in the middle of January. Her brain aneurysm occurred on Dec. 4.

"Hospitals are great and we're glad we were there with some of the best doctors and nurses in the United States, but I don't think people were meant to be in the hospital for that long of a time," Gray said. "You start to go crazy so we were glad to go home. She had met all of the goals the doctors wanted."

Alice was a "super happy, healthy" little girl, so Gray said the aneurysm was completely unexpected. She went from being perfectly healthy to not knowing — almost in an instant — if she was even going to live.

"Obviously, when it first happened it was super traumatic and my wife and I kind of took turns on who was the strong one and who gets to cry and be sad," Gray said. "We relied on that, but also our friends at Studio C and BYU-TV helped us a lot initially. Then after the word got more out and people started posting on Instagram — it has been crazy the amount of support we've gotten from the community."

Look who got her feeding tube out tonight! #alicestrong #progress

A photo posted by Jason Gray (@jasongraystudioc) on

A GoFundMe account created by friends at the end of December brought in more than $66,000 to support the family. The page was shared nearly 5,000 times. Gray said the community's generosity left the family in awe. The couple felt as though everyone was rallying for their daughter's success.

Gray expressed deep gratitude for those who went out of their way to help. He said that when he was shopping at Costco last week, multiple people recognized Alice and stopped him to ask how she was doing.

"We had one family who said they gave up their Christmas presents this year to be able to donate for Alice and it made my wife and I cry," he said. "We felt bad, but hopefully they'll get a lot of blessings and good karma and all of that stuff for their sacrifice."

Alice spent the last four weeks of her hospital stay working with doctors to rehabilitate the right side of her body, which was affected by the brain hemorrhage. Her father she said needs to relearn how to crawl, walk and talk.

The Grays were able to use funds from the GoFundMe account to purchase the special toys and devices they used at Primary Children's Hospital to help with Alice's rehabilitation. She will continue to work with a physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech therapist in Orem three times a week for the next year.

Meanwhile, Alice's personality is coming back more and more. Gray said she's a really independent, strong-willed little girl.

"Once she kind of puts her mind (to something) she goes full steam ahead," he said. "Like, it was such a challenge to get her to eat again and then it was Cheetos or something from her past that we finally gave her and I think once she got the memory of how good food is. After that moment, she just went crazy on food and couldn't get enough. So, she was quickly able to go from not being able to eat at all to them being able to take the feeding tube out and she was almost back to normal as far as that goes."

Gray said they hope the same thing will happen with her walking. Her right side is weak and her balance is off, so she's a little timid and scared. However, if she puts her mind to it Gray thinks his daughter will be able to walk again and get back to where she was before the aneurysm. Doctors told the Grays that it might take time, but Alice should be able to recover.

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