Help Avery Walk

Avery is 6 years old. She was born prematurely at 28 weeks and weighed only 2 pounds 9 ounces. At a year old Avery was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (CP) which is damage to the brain the results in lack of muscle coordination.  Avery has been participating in multiple therapies weekly since she was just 10 months old to help overcome the CP. Currently, Avery participates in physical therapy, aquatic therapy and equine therapy weekly. 


CP causes the muscles in Avery legs to be extremely tight making it harder for her to move. As a result, Avery has to take muscle relaxers 3 times per day, wear braces on both her legs and have serial casting on both her feet. Avery also has to have painful Botox injections multiple times per year to help ease the tightness of the muscles. None of these methods are permanent and the tightness will only get worse over time due to her body not utilizing the muscles correctly and the spasticity the CP causes.


St. Louis Children’s hospital offers a surgery called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) performed by Dr. T.S. Park. SDR is a surgery performed on the nerves in her spine which cause the muscle spasticity.  Alleviating the spasticity in the muscles would allow her physical therapy to be more productive. This is also a more permanent method and the spasticity is very unlikely to return.  As a result, Avery would no longer need muscle relaxers or Botox injections.


As part of the recovery process, Avery would have to have physical therapy 5 times per week for  6 months to one year following the operation.  With this surgery, Avery has a very good chance of being able to walk independently, without her walker.