Support scoliosis correction for Kenna

Help support Kenna's scoliosis correction surgery!

2 years ago, I hugged my sweet girl and as I rubbed her back, I could feel that something was not right. After looking at her back, I could see her spine had a curve and slight rotation, giving her a bit of a hump on her right side. We were devastated & couldn't believe how quickly idiopathic scoliosis had presented itself. As an 11 yr old, her latest growth spurt had not only transformed her into a beautiful young lady but it had left her with a 30 degree thoracic and 30 degree lumbar curve.

Despite the use of orthotic back braces, Kenna's scoliosis continued to get worse. Her latest curve measurements are now at 60 and 46 degrees which means surgery is required to prevent problems with her organs and keep her spine curvature from progressing as an adult.

Unfortunately, there aren't any pediatric scoliosis surgeons in our local area. Looking at the surgery options, it was clear to us that our energetic, ADHD, gymnastics-loving girl would benefit most from preserving her range of motion and we decided to reserve fusion of her entire spine as a last resort. Due to the complexity and severity of her curve and rotation, we are pursuing vertebral tethering with disc release with the Institute of Spine and Scoliosis in New Jersey.

She will be in the hospital for 7 days and need to stay in NJ for a total of 10 days with the pre & post-surgical appointments. The surgery uses flexible cords instead of the stiff rods and bone graft used in traditional fusion surgery. The surgery itself is less invasive to the muscles and has a quick recovery time of 3 months vs the 6-12 months with fusion. It will allow her to maintain a 3D range of motion vs a 2D range of fusion surgery, which allows her to continue doing cartwheels with zero restrictions after healing! It also maintains access to her disc space so she can have an epidural if needed in the future.

Our goal is to raise as much of the $40K surgery deposit as we can so that she can get on the schedule before the end of the year. The surgery center is out of network and in total will cost well over $70K.

Please consider donating to her medical fund and share her page! Help us keep our active girl in full motion!!