Kellsey's Story
Kellsey was a little girl full of life and reached all her milestones, she took her first steps on her first birthday and understood conversation. Just before her second birthday she began to feel very unwell. On arrival at hospital, Kellsey's chances of survival looked slim, the doctors diagnosed her with encephalitis, dangerous levels of swelling to the brain. It was a little while before the degree of damage to Kellsey's brain was explained. 'Kellsey had epilepsy and was unable to eat or drink herself and had to be fed by tube, she could no longer speak and was unable to control any of her limbs. 'Every part of daily life had to be done for her, she was now a silent little girl and showed no emotions at all' said Kellsey's parents.
When Kellsey returned home a friend of the family mentioned the amazing work of the BIRD Centre, Kellsey's parents contacted BIRD and were inspired by the stories they read of children who had experienced similar difficulties to Kellsey. In 2006, Kellsey came to the Centre with her parents and was assessed by BIRD's Clinical Team. A set of movement patterns were designed to help 're-train' the brain and inhibit the infantile responses, addressing the root cause of some of the problems exhibited by children like Kellsey. 'Kelsey took to the exercises straight away although at first it took three of the family to help her to do them everyday, in time we realised that all our hard work was worth it.'
Kellsey is now 18 months into the programme. Her mum describes what the last year has meant to the family,
'In the last year we have seen a tremendous improvement in our daughter. She can now eat the same diet as us and no longer needs to be fed by tube or have thickened fluids. Kellsey can now freely move around the house and we have had to make extra safety measures like stair gates and cupboard locks which we never imagined doing after the illness. Our house is no longer silent she has found her voice, she babbles at every opportunity and on occasions we have heard her say 'mum' and 'dad' to our great delight. She smiles constantly and laughs appropriately and generally enjoys life.
Before BIRD we had no thought for our daughter's future and saw our little girl having no choice in life, but now thanks to BIRD her quality of life is excellent. With each day, we now feel like we have our own Kellsey back with us. BIRD has given us hope and something to aim for as we now know it is possible. BIRD has allows us to enjoy Kellsey's live as we know that all the hard work completing the exercises each day gives us results, we can't wait for more improvements for Kellsey and to see her change day by day'
