Young Laney McGowan, who suffered severe damage to her heart and lungs following a viral infection and was admitted to the hospital in critical condition on Christmas Eve, has been taken out of her paralytic state and was discharged from the children’s hospital in Queens, where she has been since early January to a rehabilitation facility in Westchester this Friday, Jan. 27, where she is expected to stay for some time.

Prior to discharge, therapists felt Laney was ready swallow liquids thicker than juice and water, but Laney was “stubborn” according to mom, Tiffaney, and “holding out for the good stuff.” After many failed attempts with pureed food, the therapist offered ice cream, which Laney happily accepted.  “She couldn’t get enough of it!” said Tiffany.

During occupational and physical therapy, Laney often gets  upset and frustrated because of the weakness on her left side.

During her time on the ECMO machine, Laney suffered a stroke on the right side of her brain and has been receiving intense physical therapy to regain movement on the left side of her body.

On Jan. 23, Laney’s mother, Tiffany, said that Laney was weaned off the methadone and finished up her IV antibiotic for the infection from the ECMO cannulas (the ECMO was a machine that handled Laney’s blood flow and breathing to alleviate the stress from her heart and lungs to along them to recover).

A video posted on Jan. 20 to Tiffany’s Facebook page showed Laney playing with a sensory noodle.

“For over a week, we feared that Laney couldn’t see after her stroke. She couldn’t track anything and when she looked at us, it seemed like she was looking right through us,” said Tiffany. “Well… today she put all our fears aside. Without being prompted, Laney has been reaching for the sensory noodle all day.”

The McGowan family, which has six children including Laney, will have to be split during her recovery at Blythedale, with Tiffany living in Westchester to attend to Laney’s needs.

A GoFundMe for the family has raised nearly $75,000 to help with expenses, especially since mother Tiffany will have to utilize unpaid leave from her position as a teacher at Sayville School District.