Hello everyone,

We have created this fundraiser because our friend Casey Wilhelmsson will be having major back surgery on the 6th October to correct severe scoliosis. The operation will cost just over 1 million swedish kronors (£82,000). The money we raise will go towards the cost of this operation. Please help in any small way you can to reach our target of 500,000 swedish kronors (£39,000) by donating and sharing to help fund this! Thankyou

Whats going on?

Casey will be undergoing major spine surgery for scoliosis correction scheduled for 6th October. For those that may be unfamilar with the condition, scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine, often in an S shape. It can cause pain and other issues if left untreated. The angle of her curvature is considered severe and she has been advised that surgery is now needed to prevent further progression. This surgery will straighten the curvature and improve quality of life by relieving the pain she suffers on a daily basis. To give Casey the best chance to keep flexibility and for a less invasive surgery and quicker recovery, she is having ASC scoliosis correction privately.

However it comes at a large cost. The surgery and hospital fees are 95,000 Euros. (£82k).

Background

Casey was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 14. For the past 2 years she has been doing alot of physiotherapy to help with the pain caused by the condition. However more recently her pain has increased and an xray taken early this year revealed that unfortunately the curvature has progressed and is now over 50 degrees. When the curvature is this large there is a very high risk that it will continue to progress. This can then lead to breathing issues and other issues caused by lungs and heart being compressed.

The only treatment available here in Sweden is the traditional spinal fusion which involves fusing the vertebrae together and inserting metal rods. Casey and her family have been looking for a better option and found a newer type of scoliosis correction surgery, called ASC (Anterior Scoliosis Correction). This surgery uses flexible instrumentation rather than rigid rods to correct the curvature and no fusion is needed. Compared to spinal fusion, it is less invasive, back muscles are spared 100%, recovery time is quicker, and there is minimal loss of mobility in the spine. The risk of Adjacent Disc Degeneration is also dramatically reduced.

This surgery has been performed for more than 10 years in USA by a group of doctors there who pioneered it. However there are very few surgeons worldwide who do this surgery as it is very specialised .

The family have consulted with a surgeon in Milan who is very experienced in spinal surgery and has done a large amount of ASC surgeries, having been trained by the pioneers of it in USA. He has confirmed that Casey is a good candidate for ASC. The surgery will be done at the GSpine4 Unit at the Galeazzi Sant'Ambrogio hospital in Milan.