Aoife's journey to walk

Aoife Jane Coster is an almost three year old girl who each day, defies the odds of a very traumatic start to life.

Aoife and her identical twin Eveline were diagnosed with twin to twin transfusion at 20 weeks gestation. Attempts were made to resolve the disease but after a failed laser ablation surgery on their shared placenta sadly Eveline passed away and Aoife was born extremely prematurely and sustain severe brain injury.

Aoife spent 109 days in NICU and in that time she had heart surgery, laser eye surgery and remained ventilated for 9 weeks. She was diagnosed with severe grade 4 periventricular leukomalacia on both sides of her brain as well as some brain bleeds.

Aoife is almost 3 and has just learnt to sit on the floor, she still is unable to sit on a chair, stand or walk.

Although there is no cure for the effects of Cerebral Palsy, early intervention and physical therapy is the greatest support to ensure Aoife gains the most mobility possible. Many studies show that early, intensive, intervention during the first years of life has the best long-term outcomes as an infant’s brain has the most neuroplasticity and is able to “re-wire” around the damaged areas and even retrain these areas of the brain to gain gross motor skills which are so important for movement and independence.

Paediatric Intensive Therapy is not available in New Zealand where it is the standard care for infants and children with Cerebral Palsy in other countries.