Lifeline for bed-ridden graduate
A GRADUATE with a rare condition that leaves her bedbound and in constant agony has finally been offered new hope.
Melanie Hartshorn suffers from a severe and rare form of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which causes all her joints to dislocate – especially those in her spine and neck.
This has lead to a very severe case of cranio-cervical instability, which is causing her skull to sink into her spine.
The 27-year-old has spent the past two years trying to raise £150,000 for surgery in the USA to stop her skull dislocating at the neck.
But now Melanie, from Cramlington, has been handed a potential lifeline after a neurosurgeon in Barcelona agreed to take on her case.
It means the Newcastle University graduate now needs to raise £80,000 – just over half the original total – and is already more than halfway towards her target.
The news is the breakthrough she desperately needs as her condition grows drastically worse by the week.
“It’s really bad – I’m in my neck brace all the time now and even then my skull is slipping out of joint.
“It’s now affecting my heart rate and rhythm, as well as stopping my Melanie Hartshorn, who suffers from a rare crippling joint syndrome diaphragm from working properly. My mum has to physically pull my skull upwards until it pops back into joint on a daily basis, and I’ve become allergic to many of my pain medications, so I’m in agony all the time.”
Her prayers were answered when Dr Vicenç Gilete, a renowned Spanish neurosurgeon, agreed to take on her case, despite it being the most complex and serious he has ever seen.
Dr Gilete has recently performed the lifesaving surgery Melanie needs on two patients with EDS. She said: “If I can raise a total of £80,000 he will admit me and put me straight in a metal surgical halo – where they screw a metal framework into the skull to stabilise the skull and neck – for a few days while he does further scans.
“Then he will perform the fusion surgery to my neck, fusing my skull to the neck and as many of the vertebrae in my neck that are unstable.”
Melanie’s illness has left her housebound 24/7 and suffering up to 40 seizures a day.
One wrong movement could cause her skull to fully dislocate, which she describes as “a death sentence”. But inspirational Melanie made headlines last year when she still managed to complete a biology degree at Newcastle University in July – finishing the last year from home.
Her dream is to become a teacher one day and she says her three-yearold niece, Katiya, is the reason she “keeps holding on to hope”,
To donate to the appeal go to www. gofundme.com/Melanie-s-Mission or www.melanies-mission-eds.org. uk