Get Georgie Walking and Talking

Georgie was born 10 days late with an emergency Caesar, after a prolonged and difficult labor. 

He was deprived of oxygen and this caused a stroke affecting the occipital, parietal and temporal lobes on the right side of his brain. This has affected his vision, movement and speech but thankfully not his cognition.

In addition to the stroke, he developed hydrocephalus (cerebrospinal fluid build-up in the ventricles of his brain), and once this was brought under control, he developed periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) – where the fluid floods the ventricles, the ventricles then expand into space where brain matter would have grown and so now there are empty gaps or grey matter, where there should be brain matter.


At 3 weeks old, Georgie had his first brain surgery and had a Rickman’s Reservoir implanted at the front of his head to allow surgeons to drain off the fluid every few days to keep the hydrocephalus and the pressure under control.


This sustained for about a month but was not a viable option as there seemed to be no sign of it being a permanent fix.  So Georgie underwent another surgery to install a shunt which is a long tube beginning in the ventricle of the brain and extending down into his belly to drip-drain the excess CSF fluid out of the brain and into the stomach. This will remain for the rest of his life.


Six months later Georgie required a third surgery to replace the shunt for a different type of shunt which was hoped would yield better results.   

While the neurosurgeons were able to save his life, they were not able to reverse the brain injury he incurred, and his current diagnosis is:  Cerebral Palsy, PVL, left hemiplegia and gross developmental delay ... presenting some pretty tough challenges.


Georgie also has Strabismus (cross-eyed) as well as Cortical Visual Impairment (brain blindness) and Nystagmus (rapid involuntary movements of the eyes).  This all presents a huge challenge, not only for his vision development, but also for balance and stability and overall learning.

Georgie’s parents are completely devoted to ensuring the best chance of a beautiful fulfilling life for him, and they have researched literally hundreds of treatments, therapies, surgeries, diets, clinics and procedures.

They have now returned from their third trip to the USA where they have found the most effective practitioners in a variety of different therapies.

Below are some pics and more details of what has been working well for Georgie:


At The Institutes, among many other things, they teach gravity-free therapy - this will stimulate Georgie’s vestibular system which helps to improve balance, eye movements and coordination.

Now standing practice is in his daily routine - to help him understand to turn on his gluteal muscles and become familiar with the sensation of standing.

At The Plasticity Brain Centre (PBC), therapy 3 sessions per day every day and this was one of the patterning exercises - Cross-patterning to train Georgie’s brain to utilise both sides of his body simultaneously.

At PBC using the MARC (Multiple Axis Rotational Chair).  This machine allows a person to be rotated in the specific direction and orientation required to benefit their brain injury.  It is the only rotational chair in the world capable of performing rotations in all three axis directions: yaw (spinning side to side like you were in an office chair), pitch (front flips and back flips), and roll (cartwheels) or any combination of the three simultaneously.  It is a valuable tool in neurological rehabilitation that has similar outcomes to the gravity-free therapy, just better targeted.

Crawl patterning at The Institutes.  It’s all about teaching Georgie’s brain what to tell his body.

Preparing for the Stem Cell procedure at Rocky Mountain Regenerative Medicine clinic.

Partway through Stem Cell Procedure at RMRM.
Georgie’s Stem Cells have been harvested from his adipose tissue and they are being separated before being administered back directly to the blood stream through IV, as well as a small dose to the Sacral Foramen.  Not the most pleasant experience, but the potential reward outweighs that.  Results were expected to be seen from 3 weeks to 3 months, and so far Mum has noticed some periods of steadiness with his eyes, a transition to semi-crawling (which is a huge development!!) and better overall response to Georgie's other therapies.  

At one of his Movement Lessons, Georgie's "good" eye is covered to stimulate the brain into learning how to make better use of the other eye.  The results are almost immediate, but temporary and he requires repeated treatment until his brain can practice on its own. 

Neurofeedback performed on Georgie every night - Neurofeedback is direct training of brain function, by which the brain learns to function more efficiently.

Diagnostics at the PBC ... he doesn't like this one with all the cold gel inserted through those holes onto his head to allow readings to be taken

Three weeks of Casting Therapy and intense OT with a practitioner that got the absolute best out of him, and the outcome was much improved use of the left arm.  There’s a way to go yet to get the hand open and controlled movement - but progress is progress.

Unfortunately many of these intensive physical and occupational therapies, including Casting Therapy, are not practiced in Australia.   The only OT option available for Georgie is a 1-hour session once per week (and with very limited funding through the NDIS).  A child in Georgie's situation requires intensive, frequent and ongoing therapy - what he receives in the US is 3 sessions per day for 3 entire weeks ... and the results speak for themselves. 

For any other parents out there looking for answers for their brain-injured kids, Georgie’s folks are only too happy to share their progress with you and pass along clinic contacts and details.


It’s been a long road, and there are still miles ahead of them as all of these great treatments require multiple sessions over time for the best chances of success.   And through all these challenges, this kid is still so full of love and laughter - he really is a legend ✨


So now we have set a goal to reach $96,000 to cover Georgie's next 12 months of all the described treatments:

- The Institutes program continuation https://www.iahp.org/ 
- Movement Lesson TM https://www.movementlesson.com/8-months-old.html
- Brain Plasticity Centre https://www.plasticitybraincenters.com/
- Abrams Intensive Occupational Therapy  https://abramsintensiveot.com/  
- Virginia Tech Carilion and Fralin Biomedical Research Institute https://www.vtc.vt.edu/ 
- Rocky Mountain Regenerative Medicine  https://rockymountainregenerativemedicine.com/
- Neuro-Acupuncture Institute https://www.neuroacupunctureinstitute.org/

We hope to raise this amount before October, in time for Georgie's next round of treatments.   

We are only too happy to answer any questions about Georgie's journey, so if you are considering supporting this campaign and would like to ask some questions, please reach out.   

We are also in full support of the GoFundMe Guarantee and encourage you to review details on this at https://www.gofundme.com/guarantee 

Thank you ❤
Nicole