I learned to walk with my baby girl

Dad paralysed by rare disease is back on feet

A DAD learned to walk with his baby daughter after pneumonia left him paralysed from the waist down.

James Hart, 33, put in 18 months of hard work with daughter Sienna, now three, who was taking her first steps.

He said: “Sienna was learning how to walk at the same time, so we were practising together.”

James, also dad to Joshua, six, spent six weeks in and out of hospital in May 2016 and woke up unable to move the day after his discharge.

His pneumonia had triggered a rare disease called transverse myelitis, where the immune system attacks the spinal cord. He said: “It was so weird. I was feeling perfect and had been playing football with my son.

“But the next morning I couldn’t move. I was numb all down my left side.”

Doctors gave James, of Mansfield, Notts, a 30% chance of walking again but he was determined not to be a wheelchair-bound burden to his 29-year-old wife Becky.

Physiotherapy helped him gain muscle and he began walking further.

He said: “I have a young family and that is what motivated me. Sienna hadn’t seen me walk, so I wanted to get better just so I could walk with her.”

I couldn’t move and I was numb all down my left side

JAMES HART RECALLS DAY THE DISEASE HIT HIM