On July 31, 2021, during a live auction benefit for Miss Ellie Frank, a 30-pack of Busch Light sold for $16,925.00. The story of this small-town community coming together for Miss Ellie is quite amazing.

It started with planning a benefit for Miss Ellie and her family to help cover medical expenses for time she spent at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital and continued visits. The benefit, which was hosted at the VFW Post 6414 in Riverside, included a poker run, farmers market, cornhole tournament, meal, raffles and live auction.

The auction had over 200 items, donated from family, friends, neighbors and local businesses. Brett and MacKinze Walsh donated a cooler with an ice-cold 30-Pack of Busch Light. As the auctioneer, Donovan Yoder, began taking bids, Brett bought the cooler for $550. Instead of claiming his prize, he took out one beer and told Donovan to auction it again. That’s all it took for this tight-knit community to jump into action.

The next bidder, Kathy Ockenfels did the same thing, claimed her beer and sent the cooler back to resell. This went on 17 times. When it came to the last bidder, Tanner Knupp bought the last 14 beers along with the cooler. Each can sold for $500 or more, for a grand total of $16,925.00.

The Frank family and the benefit committee would like to thank everyone who came out in support of Ellie. Thank you to everyone who donated goods or services, bought items, gave donations, participated in the events and helped out all day. The day was a huge success because of the wonderful support and involvement of the entire community. 

The Story of Miss Ellie Frank

April 16, 2021, after a healthy pregnancy and delivery, Ellie was born at 39 weeks’ gestation. Upon delivery it was noted that something was just not quite right with our sweet girl. She was immediately transported to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital where it was confirmed that she was having seizures, hundreds of them in fact.

With all hands on deck, the doctors made every attempt to stop them. Ellie underwent therapeutic hypothermia, multiple labs, tests, MRI’s, EEG’s and every antiepileptic medication the doctors could think of. After seven days they were finally able to see some improvement with them, and not until weeks later was she actually seizure-free for more than 24 hours. Ellie’s diagnosis is still unclear; however, we do know that it is likely linked to a rare Grin1 mutation.

Once the seizures were controlled it was time to get our baby extubated. She was on such low settings with the hospital ventilator that we went straight to a nasal cannula with minimal respiratory support. Within just a few days Ellie showed that she needed more help and she was reintubated.

Extubation round two was about a week later, where the doctors were more aggressive with the weaning process. Weeks later, after a sleep study, Ellie was diagnosed with central apnea and it was clear that she would need long-term respiratory support. Ellie’s family made the difficult decision to have a tracheostomy.

Although at this time, Ellie is trach-and-vent-dependent, her loved ones are hopeful that as she grows and develops it will someday be a thing of the past.

As a result of the seizures, Ellie has brain damage along with multiple other diagnoses. The Frank family knows they have a long road ahead of them, but although the years to come may be difficult, each day at home with Ellie is nothing but joyful. With the help and support of the great community Ellie’s parents will be able to give her everything she needs to succeed and are certain that her heart will always be full.