Amelia McInnis, toddler paralyzed after flu, making progress
Two-year-old Amelia McInnis watches cartoons in her hospital room, her eyes focused on the television, while her mother Kristin spoons her yogurt and bananas.
As her grandmother walks in front of the television, accidentally blocking the view, Amelia squirms and makes a gurgle of protest.
That little gurgle is a great thing for Kristin McInnis to hear. She hasn't heard her daughter's voice in almost six months.
"She's almost back to where she was when she was at 18 months," McInnis says. "Except for the 15 or so words she had, she's making all the same noises. She sounds the same."
Amelia and her mother are staying in the IWK Health Centre, undergoing physical and speech therapy every day to try to get back the healthy body she had at 18 months old.
In October 2014, Amelia fought off a bout of the common flu. After the flu she seemed healthy, but her immune system turned on her own body. It inflamed her spine and left it scarred.
The toddler, who loved putting on her shoes and going outside to play, can no longer toddle. She can move her head and shoulders but everything below that is paralyzed.
Amelia was treated at the IWK and at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. Last month, she travelled to Philadelphia for intensive rehabilitation at the Shriners Hospital there.
While in the U.S., Amelia was fitted with a brace to keep her muscles in good condition and a ventilator to help her breathe. Doctors encouraged her to communicate by pointing with a stick held in her mouth. She also painted with a brush held the same way.
"Then all of a sudden two weeks in, she just started making noises," says her mother Kristin. "Just like a light switch went on."
Doctors haven't been able to tell her family whether Amelia will regain any movement. They're hoping it will come back first in her arms and eventually her legs. The next step now is to send Amelia home to Lantz.
The family will need a van, two ventilators, a power wheelchair, and renovations to the house, but that has been made easier by an online fundraising campaign that's already gathered over $42,000.
"They've been really sweet and generous, and it's just been wonderful," says Kristin McInnis. "Some really kind people out there."
