Brittneys Back Surgery

Hi my name is Michelle, my daughters name is Brittney and she is a beautiful 14 year old girl who lives for dancing. She has danced since she was 2 years old and made it her life ever since. Unfortunately 3 years ago Brittney was diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis. Her first treatment was a horrible fiberglass back brace which was not only painful but left her with bruises and sores from long time wear of up to 22 hours a day. She has gone from a normal happy healthy child to a sad teenager that has constant pain and her spine is bending and curving in several parts in her back causing her back to look bent. It's heart breaking as her mum watching her suffering in pain and crying daily. In Australia the only option for scoliosis is spinal fusion. Due to the the nature and position of her curves she would need to have a metal titanium rod and screws in her back from around her neck to the bottom of her spine. This is a highly invasive surgery and recovery is long and grueling. She would be required to take a lot of time off school which she is really worried about. She would also need to give up her passion for dancing as this surgery would make it hard to do what she does on a daily basis let alone dance. Spinal fusion fuses the spine so it's no longer flexible also stopping the curve and any movement. Through research I've found out there is an alternative to having a fusion, however, we would need to go to America for this option. This surgery is called Vertical Body Tethering (VBT). This surgery, although quite new, is ground breaking and enables children who have scoliosis to continue their normal daily life after approx 6 weeks of recovery all the while keeping spinal flexibility. They are able to return to sport, dancing or whatever activities they undertake before their surgery, normally from around 6-8 weeks. Also the scaring is a lot less . I want for her to grow and be flexible and lead a normal life but due to the fact this surgery isn't offered in Australia this will leave her with the only option of spinal fusion in Australia with a lot of restrictions and scaring . We are running out of time due to increase in her degree of curve. With rapid growth her curve has unfortunately increased from 33 degrees to 64 in 5 months. The Australian doctors feel best to operate now but as VBT isn't an option in Australia this only leaves spinal fusion. I've sent 3 doctors in the USA Brittney's X-rays and 3 have said she meets their criteria for VBT. The only problem is as we are international patients, the cost for surgery, hospital, and the Anesthesiologist is very costly. Between the 3 doctors the cost ranges from $197-300k AUDThank you for your help and any contribution you are able to donate. All money raised will be very much appreciated and would mean the world to my daughter and our family. We would love if you could please share this post with as many other people as you can. Thankyou from the bottom of my heart Michelle and Brittney xx