Chloe's Fight Against CNS Aspergillosis

My sister, Chloe Greene (24), needs your help. She has been battling an extremely rare infection in her spinal cord for two years now. She's had numerous surgeries, the most recent one 5 weeks ago has left her with no movement in her left leg, unable to walk. This infection has eluded the doctors for quite a while and they are now sending her overseas to seek other experts advice and treatment options.

Chloe is a kind, generous and loving girl, as anyone who has met her knows. She is the first to reach out and help others in their time of need, even when she was sick herself.
Chloe has participated in the VHI Women's mini-marathon for the ISCC to raise money & awareness for ulcerative colitis, which she has suffered from, just a few months before her stroke. While recovering in the NRH she set up a fundraiser for ABI Ireland.

Chloe has shown huge amounts of strength and positivity throughout this long illness.
She is a warrior, but now she needs your help in this battle.

Three years ago Chloe graduated from NUIG. It was a beautiful autumn day filled with pride, excitement and anticipation for a very bright future ahead. A Masters degree and traveling were on the cards for Chloe. Little did we know that a few months later our world would be turned upside down.

On August 16th 2017 Chloe suffered a stroke as a result of a CVST blood clot in the brain. After two thrombectomy surgeries to remove the blood clot, EVD to relieve pressure on the brain, and a tracheotomy Chloe defied all the odds showing positive recovery and plans to go onto the NRH in Dun Laoghaire.

Infection in the Central Nervous System
Unfortunately during Chloe's recovery from the stroke another bombshell hit us. Chloe began experiencing severe pain and stiffness in her neck and an MRI revealed a lesion compressing Chloe's spinal cord at the c2 level, then she experienced difficulty walking and was unable to lift her arms and was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the lesion and decompress her spinal cord which involved removing the lamina from 3 vertebrae in her cervical spine. This was the first of many surgeries on her spine.

Chloe came home from hospital just in time for Christmas and then went onto the NRH to start her therapies to recover from the brain injury. She was coming on in leaps and bounds with speech and language therapy, recovering memory loss and recall but was becoming physically weaker towards the end of that admission and had to have her second emergency surgery on her spine. Her spinal cord was compressed to the thinness of a ribbon we were told. It would be an extremely risky surgery, but there was no option but to go ahead with it.

Remarkably Chloe came through surgery safely and neurologically intact. The lesion was mostly removed but another 3rd surgery was scheduled for 2 weeks later, this time planned with 2 neurosurgeons and a team monitoring Chloe's spinal cord signals throughout. Again thanks to the expert neurosurgeons and teams in Beaumont hospital it was a success. It was after this surgery to remove the mass that we finally got a confirmed diagnosis of Aspergillosis, a very rare and difficult to diagnosis infection.

Three surgeries would be tough for anyone.­ However this spinal infection turned out to be way more persistent than any of us could have imagined. This struggle would continue for another year and a half. Chloe has had 10 major surgeries to date. Many of which were high risk operations on her spine, which could have left her paralysed. The most recent surgery has left her with no mobility in her left leg and very weak movement in her left hand.

Despite all this Chloe has remained positive, relying on her inner strength and faith that she will recover.

August 2018 Annual "Honour Your Heroes" at Beaumont Hospital 
Chloe's fight continues
So how can you help?
In the short term, your donations will be used for extra costs incurred while going overseas. Right now there are doctors from all over the world, including London and Texas who are interested in helping Chloe.

In the long term, these funds will go towards the rehabilitation that Chloe will need after recovering from this. This includes physiotherapy, medication and any other unforeseen expenses while she is recovering from her many surgeries.


We would really appreciate your donations, support and prayers.
It will take some time for her to recover fully, but we know Chloe's up for the challenge.

Chloe's mother, Catherine, will be managing all the funds raised on behalf of Chloe and our family.