Lydia's journey to 2 feet on the ground - Part 2

Lydia - 6yrs old was born with a congenital condition known as Proximal femoral focal deficiency or PFFD. In 2020 we travelled to the US for 11.5 months for Lydia’s first surgery. Lydia's was born with a shortened femur, a small femoral head and an undeveloped hip. Her only surgery choices in NZ were to amputate or rotationplasty. We did not feel that either of these choices would give Lydia the best outcome to live a fully mobile and independent life, so we searched for other options and found the Paley Institute in West palm beach, Florida. Dr Paley felt Lydia was a good candidate for the sling hip procedure and extensive lengthening she gained 8.4cm of length and her femur was straightened. The surgery has been a huge success and Lydia's life has been changed in so many ways.

We are 3 years on from her first surgery and her second surgery date has been set for 10 Oct 2023. Again we are aiming to get another 8cm of length on her femur and this is not a surgery that can be done in NZ as there limited resources and follow up care that would not offer her the treatment she needs to make the surgery successful so we are going back to the Paley Institute in the US.

Her last surgery costs us in excess of $500,000 and we still have more than 2/3 of this debt to pay off (please see our other Givealittle page fundraising to pay off this debt here https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/lydias-journey-to-2-feet-on-the-ground). We now need to raise another $200,000 for her second surgery.

We need all the help we can get and appreciate anyone that donates to us and makes Lydia’s dream come true of having her own 2 feet on the ground.