Meet Emma. She is 4 years old. Emma was diagnosed with a hemiplegic spastic cerebral palsy when she was 12 months old. We will appreciate your help to raise funds for her upcoming treatments.
We are planning a stem cell treatment that can help reduce the hyper tone in her leg and arm, improve her balance, and reduce the number of falls significantly. Unfortunately, this treatment is not offered in the United States at this point. The stem cell treatment in the US is still in clinical trial stage. Therefore, we have researched clinics outside the US. The clinic we have chosen for her treatment is in Ukraine. After the stem cell treatment, doctors recommend that she is in intensive therapy for a month to get the best results. The cost of the stem cell treatment is $16,000 and the intensive therapy session for a month is $6,000. The intensive therapy will be done in the US. However, none of those treatments are covered by insurance. The goal of both treatments is to re-train her brain allowing new or improved motor skills. Because the brain is most able to learn in the first five years of life, this is the most crucial time for Emma to go through this process. This is the time when she can make the most progress, that will positively impact her whole life. We would greatly appreciate everyone’s help.
A little backstory on her diagnosis.
Cerebral palsy describes a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Cerebral palsy is caused by brain injury or atypical brain development that happens around the time of birth, during pregnancy, or early in life. Cerebral palsy is a permanent condition, meaning the injury to the brain does not change, however, the effects of cerebral palsy often progress as people get older. Doctors say that Emma suffered a stroke during the second trimester of pregnancy. Unfortunately, they cannot determine what caused the stroke. The stroke Emma experienced is similar to strokes with adults. The damage is to the right side of the brain, which affects her mobility on the left side of the body. Most people may have heard or seen adults recover from a stroke. With lots of physical and occupational therapy many adults can recover completely (depending on the severity of the stroke of course). However, with children, it is a lot harder to “recover” from a stroke as their brain and body has never learned those motions to begin with. So, with kids, the process is not really a recovery, it is learning how to utilize other parts of the brain to compensate for the part that is damaged.
We have been very fortunate that Emma’s diagnosis is somewhat mild as her speech and cognitive development are not affected. However, she is struggling with many daily tasks when it comes to mobility.
She started walking several months after she turned 2. However, due to the spasticity (extreme tightness) in her left leg, walking has been a challenge. She is constantly on her toes, losses balance easily, and falls frequently.
She has been in physical and occupational therapy ever since she was diagnosed, which has helped a lot. However, therapy alone is not enough for the best possible outcome for her.
That is why we have looked into other options of treatment for cerebral palsy. One of them is spine surgery (which sounds so scary to us). With spine surgery, the outcome is unknown, it may or may not help. She would have to learn how to walk all over again and the recovery period is over a year long. Not to mentions, all the possible risks of undergoing a spine surgery. Before we make the decision to proceed with a spine surgery, we wanted to explore the stem cell treatment.
Thank you for your time and generosity.
We are planning a stem cell treatment that can help reduce the hyper tone in her leg and arm, improve her balance, and reduce the number of falls significantly. Unfortunately, this treatment is not offered in the United States at this point. The stem cell treatment in the US is still in clinical trial stage. Therefore, we have researched clinics outside the US. The clinic we have chosen for her treatment is in Ukraine. After the stem cell treatment, doctors recommend that she is in intensive therapy for a month to get the best results. The cost of the stem cell treatment is $16,000 and the intensive therapy session for a month is $6,000. The intensive therapy will be done in the US. However, none of those treatments are covered by insurance. The goal of both treatments is to re-train her brain allowing new or improved motor skills. Because the brain is most able to learn in the first five years of life, this is the most crucial time for Emma to go through this process. This is the time when she can make the most progress, that will positively impact her whole life. We would greatly appreciate everyone’s help.
A little backstory on her diagnosis.
Cerebral palsy describes a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Cerebral palsy is caused by brain injury or atypical brain development that happens around the time of birth, during pregnancy, or early in life. Cerebral palsy is a permanent condition, meaning the injury to the brain does not change, however, the effects of cerebral palsy often progress as people get older. Doctors say that Emma suffered a stroke during the second trimester of pregnancy. Unfortunately, they cannot determine what caused the stroke. The stroke Emma experienced is similar to strokes with adults. The damage is to the right side of the brain, which affects her mobility on the left side of the body. Most people may have heard or seen adults recover from a stroke. With lots of physical and occupational therapy many adults can recover completely (depending on the severity of the stroke of course). However, with children, it is a lot harder to “recover” from a stroke as their brain and body has never learned those motions to begin with. So, with kids, the process is not really a recovery, it is learning how to utilize other parts of the brain to compensate for the part that is damaged.
We have been very fortunate that Emma’s diagnosis is somewhat mild as her speech and cognitive development are not affected. However, she is struggling with many daily tasks when it comes to mobility.
She started walking several months after she turned 2. However, due to the spasticity (extreme tightness) in her left leg, walking has been a challenge. She is constantly on her toes, losses balance easily, and falls frequently.
She has been in physical and occupational therapy ever since she was diagnosed, which has helped a lot. However, therapy alone is not enough for the best possible outcome for her.
That is why we have looked into other options of treatment for cerebral palsy. One of them is spine surgery (which sounds so scary to us). With spine surgery, the outcome is unknown, it may or may not help. She would have to learn how to walk all over again and the recovery period is over a year long. Not to mentions, all the possible risks of undergoing a spine surgery. Before we make the decision to proceed with a spine surgery, we wanted to explore the stem cell treatment.
Thank you for your time and generosity.