Reece braves six-hour op’
Scott, Reece, Jillian and Millie Cameron.
A YOUNG boy from Kennoway has become the first child from Fife, and only the second in Scotland, to be given a groundbreaking medical procedure.
Since July the Mail has reported on Reece Cameron, a nine-year-old who was diagnosed with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, a condition which has caused his leg muscles to severely tighten, when he was 18 months.
The condition means that Reece cannot walk on the soles of his feet so instead has to walk on his tip-toes, causing him to often lose balance and fall.
Reece’s parents, dad Scott and mum Jillian, were made aware of a treatment called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy which is new to the UK and permanently eliminates high muscle tone by cutting damaged nerves in the spine, leaving the healthy ones to carry the correct signals from the brain to the muscles.
The treatment should enable Reece to walk freely.
After being funded for the £24,000 treatment by the NHS, Reece travelled to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol for the lengthy operation last week.
Jillian told the Mail: “It was a long, agonising, six and a half hours.
“Usually the operation is between four to five hours so when it approached six we were getting quite anxious, but we were reassured all was well.
“Reece was quite agitated and was not sure what was going on and was quite sore when he was coming round.
“He got settled in the high dependency unit where he was closely monitored and given regular pain relief.”
Reece’s parents have been fundraising relentlessly over the past few months as it’s reckoned that the cost of his aftercare will top £40,000.
When he’s well enough to leave the hospital Reece’s rehabilitation from his operation will take around six months.
Jillian added: “When the physio team began moving him he was in great pain and became upset.
“The physios said they didn’t expect anything more and he has done well.
“His sessions have gone really well.
“He manoeuvred from the bed to the wheelchair with no tears and was actually smiling he was so proud of himself, as we are.
“He said: ‘That didn’t hurt at all.’
“There’s no looking back now.”
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Weather for Kirkcaldy
Sunday 26 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South west
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