A B.C. toddler who is paralyzed from the waist down has been given a potentially life-changing grant to help her walk again.
Julia Grassmick, a two-year-old from the Okanagan, received $10,000 to help her family pay for therapy at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a treatment centre in Baltimore that specializes in helping children recover from spinal injuries.
Half of the grant money came from the BC Hospitality Foundation, while the other half was contributed by the BC Paraplegic Foundation and Fantasy Food 2000.
Julia’s troubles began on Oct. 15, 2015, when her parents Melissa and Ryan Grassmick found her in bed, unable to move. A series of medical examinations over the next four days revealed a large blood clot was compressing Julia’s spinal cord.
She was rushed to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, where she underwent spinal surgery. But the surgery was in vain — she was already paralyzed from the waist down. Julia’s doctors told her parents it is highly unlikely that she will ever walk again.
Yet Julia’s parents were not dismayed by the doctors’ predictions. Her mother told CTV News in July that “we’ve seen people recover from [spinal injuries], so we have a lot of hope in ourselves.”
Unfortunately, the Grassmicks said they can’t get funding for Julia’s treatment from the government until she is of school age.
With help from fundraisers and online donations, they have collected enough to travel from the Okanagan to Richmond every week for hours of physical therapy, at a monthly cost of $1,700.
While researching therapy options, the family also discovered a two-week program at Kennedy Krieger, which they hope could expedite Julia’s recovery process.
The cost of more than $16,000 initially seemed out of reach, but Julia’s grant has made it possible for the little girl to head down this coming September, and imbued her family with a sense of hope for the future.
