A mum whose daughter has had to undergo emergency brain surgery is looking for an Elsa to make her fifth birthday party memorable. Holly Seymour says having the Frozen princess at Violet's party “would make her year”.
Last month Violet, from Poole, was taken to hospital where she underwent two surgical procedures which prevented her from celebrating her fifth birthday. Violet suffers from Chiari malformation, a brain condition where the lower part of the brain pushes down into the spinal canal.
Mum of six Holly rushed Violet to hospital after her daughter started experiencing neurological symptoms and she underwent decompression surgery and nephrostomy surgery. The stitches from the surgery have since come open and Holly is waiting for news on where Violet will be treated.
Holly told DorsetLive : "The stitches from the surgery, that was two weeks from today, have come open. Now we’re waiting for a call back from Southampton or Poole depending on where they want her to go, but [doctors] said she’ll need treatment. Besides the antibiotics, she’ll need to go back to theatre to have the stitches cleaned up and re-stitched again."
After her birthday party was cancelled, Holly wants to find someone to play Elsa and attend Violet's delayed celebrations so she can "just feel like a normal child again".
"She absolutely loves Elsa and Frozen," said Holly. "Her whole theme is that. She’s always singing the songs. I think it would make her year.
"She’s spent all of this year in hospital at the moment. She’s not been at school since last November because she’s been so poorly. She still can’t go back in at the moment because her needs are quite significant.
"She hasn’t been at school and we don’t know when she can go back yet, but she misses all of her friends so much. So, this will be something for her rather than focus on the hospital all the time, and just feel like a normal child again."
After appealing for help on social media to rearrange the party, Holly has been overwhelmed by the community's response and has been offered a venue for next week.
“I didn't realise how many times it had been shared and how people had seen it - it's been amazing," explained Holly. "We’ve had an offer from Christ Church in Creekmoor to have the hall for next Monday, which is the day of her birthday.
"Her birthday is May 2, but she was supposed to have her party last weekend (April 23-24), but she was in hospital so she was too poorly to have it. I can’t get her party cancelled again. It’s just too much for us.
"She’s got a condition called Chiari malformation, that means basically her brain is too big for her skull. So, doctors had to do decompression surgery where they cut down the back of the neck to take away a small piece of the skull at the neck to allow more room.
"She had surgery two years ago, but it failed and it gave her hydrocephalus. She’s got a VP shunt (ventriculoperitoneal shunt, which is a thin plastic tube that helps drain extra fluid from the brain) and she ended up getting spinal cord damage due to the issues with her brain condition. So, it gave her neuropathic bladder so now she’s got a nephrostomy tube.
"Two weeks ago she started getting bad neuro symptoms like really bad pins and needles in her legs and arms, and became quite poorly," said Holly. "She had to undergo decompression surgery again, but this time doctors put a stent in her brain, because of her symptoms."
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
