Mum’s fears for girl with cerebral palsy as her mental health suffers
THE mum of a teenage girl with cerebral palsy said she worries about her mental health as she lives in constant pain and can’t get the surgery she needs.
Katie Byrne, 17, who also suffers from a dysplastic hip, a twisted femur and a pelvic fracture, needs a complex procedure to relieve the pain which only a doctor in the US is willing to do.
Mum Antoinette Burke set up a Gofundme page to raise €300,000 to pay for the procedure and associated costs. But so far, they have just €17,000.
She told Redfm: “Her mental health now is really bad. She said everything is just getting on top of her.
“She basically doesn’t want me to be constantly trying to raise funds for her.
“It’s so hard on her. Everything is just getting to her. The longer this is going on the worse it affects her.
“She said, ‘Mam, I don’t want to do this’. My life at the moment just revolves around trying to get her what she needs.”
Antoinette and Katie met with worldrenowned surgeon Dr Dror Paley in 2022 who said he could help with her dysplastic hip – where the “ball and socket” joint of the hip does not properly form in babies and young children.
She is now trying to stump up the money to pay for the surgery which will be carried out in the Paley Orthopaedic & Spine Institute in Florida.
She explained: “There is no doctor that will touch her bar Dr Dror Paley … it’s absolutely ridiculous but what can I do if he’s the only doctor that will help her.
“There’s been so many excuses that we’ve been given. It’s just so hard on her.”
Antoinette said Katie has missed so much school this year and a number of trips with her classmates as a result of her condition.
She also told how she gets physio from trainee students “once in a blue moon” and reckons when those sessions finish she won’t get anything else for the rest of the year.
Antoinette added: “Katie is strong, physically. She’ll tell me that her hip is at her, and I’ll do her physio with her. If it’s really bad.”
She said her daughter’s case has been brought up in the Dail but so far the Government has done nothing to help.
Katie was first diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was 17 months old.
When she was six, she underwent selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery which allowed her to walk.
But as a result of her dysplastic hip, “her legs are starting to deteriorate and she is slowly becoming more dependent on crutches and her wheelchair” hence the need for another procedure.
It’s so hard. The longer it goes on, the worse it affects her ANTOINETTE BUR KE RED FM YESTERDAY