‘I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SEE HER WALK UNAIDED’
Mum reveals wonderful moment 11-year-old Ffion took first steps
F
FION Rose Laverick, from Cardiff, is like any other girl her age. She loves music, dancing and is Tik-Tok obsessed.
But the 11-year-old has always had one wish – to walk unaided.
Just hours after her birth in July 2009 Ffion was diagnosed with a host of heart problems – including several holes and a murmur.
Within days she underwent keyhole surgery to repair an artery and needed open heart surgery three months later.
At two and a half, Ffion went into heart failure for a second time and needed to have further open-heart surgery.
It was at this point that Ffion’s mum, Charlotte Laverick, and doctors discovered she had suffered two strokes – leaving her paralysed from the waist down.
But during lockdown Ffion surprised her family and medical professionals by taking her first steps unaided.
Charlotte, who’s also mum to Darcy, six, and one-year-old Finley, said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was overwhelmed with emotion.
“We’ve been on such a journey and we’ve hit obstacle after obstacle. I’ve always hoped Ffion would walk, but I had accepted it might not happen.
“At three months old she had to have the first open-heart surgery. We had no choice – if she didn’t, she would have died.
“Everything seemed to go fine, but when she got to about eight or nine months I could see that she couldn’t sit up properly and she kept falling over.
“She wasn’t hitting the key milestones. I said to the doctors, ‘I know she’s my first child, but I know something isn’t right’.
“She never crawled and she would only ever pick up her bottle with her left hand.”
Doctors diagnosed Ffion as having right-side weakness and assigned her a physiotherapist. But in April 2012, during a regular cardiology checkup, doctors noticed a fibrous tissue blockage.
Ffion had to undergo a second open-heart surgery at Bristol Children’s Hospital.
Immediately after the operation, Charlotte noticed Ffion’s left side had gone floppy and that she had stopped being able to use her hand.
An MRI scan revealed she had suffered two strokes. Scarring suggested the first happened during the first open-heart surgery in 2009, and the second during the second operation in 2012.
Charlotte said: “It was devastating to hear. Ffion managed to regain some use of her left side fairly quickly because they intervened straightaway, but because her right side had been damaged and left unnoticed for so long it just couldn’t be repaired.
“Her right side is very stiff – which she will use to her advantage – whereas her left side is a lot weaker.
“Her bottom half was worse than her top half. She was paralysed from the waist down.
“Doctors have said she has a form of cerebral palsy. Her muscles can’t keep up with her bone growth, so every few months her muscles will begin to deteriorate.
“But whereas certain treatments can help children with cerebral palsy, we haven’t found anything that works for Ffion.
“She has always been a full-time powered wheelchair user and we were told she’d never be able to walk.”
In 2016, Ffion underwent a third open-heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital and didn’t experience any complications. But despite having treatments including Botox and having multiple ligaments released in her legs, she’s still never been able to walk.
However, Ffion, who loves sports and has long dreamed of being able to kick a football, defied all odds and took her first steps unaided on May 29.
Charlotte said: “Seeing her do her first step was so, so overwhelming. Ffion and I had been told that she would never, ever walk. It’s such a good thing to happen during such a bad time.
“We were on our usual walk in Cardiff Bay and she was standing by a stone and suddenly she just let go and took a step.
“I panicked and asked what she was doing. She fell straight to the ground but it was the most she’d ever done. I didn’t understand.
“And then we came home and she just got up and walked the length of the hallway. It was crazy – it was the first time she had managed to do it in her entire life.
“She’s tried before, she tries in her physio sessions and she’s never been able to do it. Her physio came out last week and they said it’s a complete mystery.”
Charlotte hopes doctors will be able to assess
Ffion at an appointment next week and say whether or not she will be able to continue to walk.
“I never thought I’d see the day where she would walk unaided but I am a true believer in hope and for me, hope was the one thing I always had,” she said.
“Now there’s no stopping her – it’s like I’m running around after a toddler. She bumps into things and falls, but she’s trying her best.
“She’s such a happy-go-lucky child, I know she’s brave enough to do it. She takes everything in her stride and always has a smile on her face.”