Vinnie Kelly's USA operation fund

We Need Your Help!

I'm Maggie and most of you already know about my delightful nephew Vinnie, but for those who don’t, here is a little about him.

                                         Roy and Vinnie

Vinnie is now 5yrs old and was born with a very severe case of a rare congenital deformity which has affected his hip, and left him with one short leg and arm. It’s called PFFD (Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency). PFFD inhibits the growth and formation of the bones. It is predicted that if nothing was done, when Vinnie stopped growing his left leg would be 31cm shorter than is right, making it impossible to walk with out a prosthesis. There is no known cause of this disease and as a result of its rarity, very few paediatric surgeons specialise in its treatment. The options that Vinnie’s mum and dad, Sam and Rill were given here in Australia just weren’t good enough. They were told he could either rely on protheses his whole life or he could have a procedure done called a Van Ness Rotationplasty.

                              Van Ness Rotationplasty

This effectively means amputating his leg at the thigh, rotating it and reattaching, which still leaves him needing a short prothesis. Another option they were given was amputating his foot to enable a lower limb prothesis. Non of these options felt right, Sam and Rill didn't see the sense in amputating anything just to still end up needing a prothesis. So they did their research and found the amazing Dr Dror Paley in Miami Florida. He has developed surgeries which allow normal function to be returned to Vinnie’s hip and knee, which would then allow him to have lengthening surgeries, and in the future lead a normal life without the use of a prothesis.

                             One of Dr Paley's Patients

Right now Vinnie gets around with the use of his Spiderman Blade Prosthesis but Sam and Rill are giving it everything they’ve got to give him his very own super leg!


And here is where we come in. Vinnie has to venture back to America for his second surgery to stabilise his hip and start this lengthening process. He will have to stay there for 4 months in total to ensure he gets all the rehabilitation he needs. This surgery alone is costing his family $180000 and so I thought maybe we could help them out a bit. On top of the surgery cost, they’ll need accommodation, food, a car alone could be $8000 to hire and flights back and forth for his family at various times through out the 4 months. They have approached medicare, private health insurance, a number of members of parliament and various charities over the years but have been denied any assistance on the basis that his condition is not life threatening and that the funds would be sent overseas.

Vinnie's twin bother Roy will be with him almost the whole time, and his little brother and sister, Eddie and Pepper will be joining him for a bit of his stay in America, but for a lot of this time the family will be split up which in itself will be hard on them all. If we can just raise a little bit towards this massive total to help this beautiful family it would be amazing. So whatever you could manage would be greatly appreciated!