"Where's my dog?" he asks his mother Cynthia each day when she picks him up from school. Cynthia and Eoin's father, Ken, would like Eoin to have a dog too, but the kind of dog they have in mind is hard to come by and can cost as much as $10,000
Eoin has suffered from seizures since he was 3 months old. Many of his seizures are relatively mild, betrayed only by a fluttering of his eyelids. But 15 to 18 times a month, Eoin has such severe seizures that he often stops breathing, and if he isn't administered medicine immediately, he could die. He can never be left alone. After treatment at top Boston hospitals and experimenting with 10 different medications, his seizures remain uncontrollable.
Recently, the Robertsons learned of an alternative way of managing Eoin's seizures.
"We first learned about it from a television show," Ken Robertson said. "There were these seizure-assistance dogs that could alert people when a seizure was occurring."
As the Robertsons began to do more research, a seizure-alert dog sounded more and more like something that could benefit Eoin. A highly trained dog could wake the Robertsons if Eoin went into a seizure at night and could stay with him if he wandered off alone, as he sometimes does. It could even eventually learn to sense oncoming seizures before they happened, sensing subtle changes in Eoin's body chemistry.
Eoin's seizures have left him with a lot of brain damage, and he is developmentally delayed both physically and mentally. He isn't very articulate, and though he sits in a regular fourth-grade classroom, when he's not with his special education teacher, he has trouble making friends.
"I think Eoin really wants the dog for companionship," his mother said. "He loves to have someone sitting by him when he plays. We want the dog because it could help keep him safe."
The Robertsons have applied for a dog from 4 Paws For Ability, an Ohio-based company that trains seizure-alert dogs. But because of their sophisticated training, the dogs are very expensive. Because the trainers want the dog's new owners to be equally invested in their new highly trained companions, 4 Paws For Ability requires applicants to raise the money for a dog themselves.
Fortunately for the Robertsons, the Bresnahan community has stepped in to help. Neil Reardon, a fourth-grade teacher at the Bresnahan, first got to know Eoin several years ago when his wife, Patty, became Eoin's one-on-one aide.
"He's such a wonderful kid - he's got a smile a mile long. He's really happy, and even though stuff is often tough for him, he's here at school every day, working hard," Reardon said.
Reardon is one of the founders of the Bresnahan Caring Community, an organization that raises money for local causes. In past years, the Caring Community has held benefits for a quadriplegic child, another child with a rare form of cancer and a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina. When Reardon began to thinking of a possible cause to organize around this year, Eoin and his dog came to mind.
"It's a good match," Reardon said. "It's something the community can do that will make a really big difference in the life of a member of the community. We're having our first fundraiser Oct. 20, and we're looking forward to it."
Eoin is too.
"He's very excited," Cynthia Robertson said. "He's calling it the 'dog-raiser.'"
If you go
What: The Bresnahan School's 4th annual Kids Walking for Kids fundraiser, "Goin' for Eoin," will raise funds to buy fourth-grader Eoin Roberts a seizure-alert dog.
Where: Bresnahan Field
When: Oct. 20 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Donations can also be dropped off at the Bresnahan School main office. Checks should be made out to the Bresnahan Caring Community Fund.
