Donation helps Melanie to fly home after op
HOMECOMING THANKS TO ANONYMOUS RESPONSE TO HER APPEAL
A WOMAN who was struggling to get back to Northumberland from Spain following a life-saving operation has arrived home after an “amazingly generous” anonymous donation.
Melanie Hartshorn had been in Barcelona after getting special permission to fly out for surgery to fuse her skull and whole spine following complications from the rare condition Ehlers Danlos syndrome (EDS).
The 31-year-old was recovering in specially adapted apartments after being discharged from hospital but was struggling to meet the £10,000 cost of a medical flight back to the UK.
Now, Melanie is finally back in Cramlington thanks to an anonymous donation to her online fundraising page.
The aspiring teacher arrived home on Thursday after being flown by air ambulance.
Updating her social media followers on the news, she wrote: “Thanks to an amazingly generous (and anonymous) donation on my GoFundMe we now have managed to scrape together enough funds to book the mediflight home tomorrow!
“So happy! There’s so many kind people in the world, especially at the moment when everyone is struggling so much. You guys are all the best!
“Obviously we will still need to fundraise to pay back what we’ve had to borrow and cover all the extra costs etc., but I’m so relieved! Now, to rest, recover, pack and get home!”
So far the cost of the procedure and hospital stay is estimated to be more than £90,000, with the total rising every day Melanie had to spend in accommodation.
The graduate had spent a total of six weeks in Barcelona after being flown out as a medical emergency after a lifethreatening setback left her bedbound and unable to move.
Melanie had successful surgery in Barcelona in 2017 after years of living her life lying down due EDS.
She had to go back to Spain two years later for another spinal fusion when she woke up after an operation on her knee to realise that her symptoms had begun to return.
After making good progress with physiotherapy and sitting in her wheelchair over lockdown, she had a bad spell with asthma and allergies and ended up in hospital with a major asthma attack.
The constant coughing led to her thoracic spine ‘popping’ between the two spinal fusions, leaving her in extreme pain and unable to sit up without fainting.
Melanie was allowed to fly to Barcelona in January to be stabilised until medics could operate to fix her skull again and fuse her entire spine to her pelvis.
The surgery eventually took place on February 2 and lasted more than 12 hours.
Melanie is now believed to be one of just three patients in the world with every vertebra, skull and pelvis fused.