DECATUR, Texas — In his house and out of uniform, you'll find Decatur Polie Chief Delvon Campbell is a happy man. It's because he finally has his daughter, Kynadee, back home.
"As a parent you’re always wanting to help your kids as best we can," Chief Campbell said. "And there was nothing we could do."
Born at just 28 weeks and only 1.4 pounds, Kynadee's faced medical issues her whole life. She's had respiratory and pulmonary complications, as well as cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
This past Labor Day Weekend alone, she had 25 seizures.
"And it didn’t matter what we did they weren’t stopping," Kynadee's mom, Asley told WFAA. "There’s been several times we’ve almost lost her."
Considered critically ill, Kynadee was in the hospital for 30 days.
"She ended up aspirating," Chief Campbell said.
Kynadee spent 15 days on a ventilator before she was finally able to come home. She's back home, but the threat of seizures isn't gone. Her twin sister, Ryliegh, can't sleep.
"'Cuz I’m scared she’s gonna have a seizure in the middle of the night," Ryliegh told WFAA.
Kynadee’s doctor says she needs a seizure detection dog, but they don’t come cheap.
"At minimum, usually, $30,000, yeah," said Ashley.
But they can cost up to $60,000, on top of mounting medical bills. It didn't take long until the people of this tiny Texas town got word their chief’s daughter needs one and started fundraising.
"It’s awe, shock and awe to be honest," Chief Campbell told WFAA.
"A lot of people we’ve never met before will send messages that they’re praying for her," Ashley added.
So far, folks in Decatur have raised $23,000 of their $50,000 goal. Some of that money was even dropped at the police station by Decatur parents whose children have died.
"Either they’ve lost ‘em through cancer or other things," Chief Campbell said. "And they’d stop by and say look, 'here’s as much money as I can give.' And I’m like, 'look, you don’t have to do that.' But that’s what we have here."
"It just makes you think if we could all be like that, how much better our world would be, if we all did that every single day. You couldn’t ask for a better place than [Decatur.]"
You can find the link to the GoFundMe for Kynadee's dog here.