Please help our dream of Kyle walking come true
Family need €100k to get 5-year-old pioneering surgery in US
The surgery will sever misfiring nerves in Kyle’s spinal cord RORY FITZGERALD
With mum Janine and dad Rory THE parents of a wheelchair-bound five-year-old are hoping to raise funds to get him pioneering surgery to allow him to walk.
Kyle Fitzgerald has cerebral palsy and his dad Rory and mum Janine have been given the devastating news he may be in a wheelchair for life.
However, they believe there is one procedure he can get called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy surgery, available at a specialist centre in the US at St Louis Children’s Hospital, Missouri, which could see him live an independent life.
Specialists have already reviewed Kyle’s case and said he is eligible for the procedure, which selects problematic nerves in the spinal cord and cuts their roots, providing pain relief by reducing the tightness and freeing the muscles to act normally.
The operation and physio will cost €100,000 and Rory – who lives in Ashbourne, Co Meath, with his wife and their other sons Jamie, 19, and 11-yearold Calum – said they have already raised €25,000 since launching their appeal five weeks ago.
The 38-year-old added he hopes Kyle will one day be able to do all the things most kids take for granted, including taking a few steps and running around and playing with friends. Rory said: “The
CO MEATH YESTERDAY
surgery costs the guts of €100,000 so it’s a serious amount of money but when you are presented with an opportunity to get him out of his wheelchair you have to go for it.
“The local community have been great, people have really reached out.
“People see a child in a wheelchair and think it’s just a physical thing with his legs but essentially it’s a brain injury which happened at birth.
“The motor signals that come from that part of the brain, they come down from the spinal cord and tell the legs what to do.
“What the surgery will do is go into the spinal cord, identify the misfiring nerves and it will permanently sever those nerves.
“America has been doing this surgery since 1991 and [doctors] have carried out the procedure on 3,600 children from 72 different countries.
“Kyle is booked in for
September 2019.”
Rory added: “Kyle has a cousin who is surgery in three and she was running around and he asked to be put down on the floor to chase her.
“It’s those little things, running around, that he would love to be able to do. Simple things like kicking a ball, taking a few steps.
“It would also lead to a great state of independence for him, where he could walk up the stairs on his own, get in and out of a shower – things we currently need to help him with.”
Rory said the next big fundraiser is to get Kyle’s school friends at St Mary’s in Ashbourne into a recording studio to record a version of Katrina And The Waves classic Walking On Sunshine.
He added: “The family are asking if any of Ireland’s top musical artists could make a small video recording wishing the little boys and girls the best of luck recording their debut No1 single for Kyle.
“The video can then be added to the music video.”
All contributions to Kyle’s cause will be managed by the children’s charity Just4children.
■ You can donate at www.justgiving. com/campaigns/charity/just4children/ kyleswishtowalk or www.facebook.com/ SDR4KYLE.