A former policewoman and science graduate has battled against the odds to enable her daughter to live the best life she can, and now aims to obtain a Smart Pup to further aid her.
When Paula Phillips of Noosa Heads gave birth to Georgia on 14 December 2011, her baby was not breathing and had no muscle tone.
Georgia had profound hypotonia, more commonly known as floppy baby syndrome, and doctors suggested she would most likely spend her limited life as a “beanbag baby”.
She also suffered from severe gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and reflux aspiration causing her to vomit about 20 times a day with a high risk that she would aspirate on the vomit. Doctors recommended Georgia be isolated from the public for the first 12 months of her life to ensure she didn’t contract any infection to threaten her life.
Naturally, this put an enormous strain on Paula’s marriage and it broke down.
Three years ago, Paula and Georgia moved to Noosa to be closer to her parents June and John.
To be independent in the future, Paula knew Georgia needed to be weaned off her NG tube, but only a specialist in Germany could be found to take on the complex case. Through fund-raising they brought over the German clinical development psychologist who helped Georgia learn to chew and swallow, and 18 months ago she became tube free.
Earlier this year through genetic analysis, Georgia was diagnosed with congenital myasthenic syndrome, a chronic muscle weakness so rare that it affects as few as 1 in 500,000 people.
While Georgia now goes to school on a part-time basis, she has a very long road ahead of her, and will require constant care for the foreseeable future. Her poor muscle tone can cause her to stop breathing if she becomes overexcited, exhausted or has a fever.
If she falls, she goes down “like a tree” as she has no muscle tone to break her fall. And due to the concave nature of Georgia’s sternum, when her heart beats too vigorously, it literally bounces against her sternum which can be both painfully debilitating and quite frightening, so it’s hardly surprisingly that she can be prone to extreme anxiety outside the home.
Paula has just been approved for a Smart Pup. She believes the calming nature of a therapy dog will have countless benefits for her daughter, and may even hopefully be trained to recognize the onset of Georgia’s life threatening symptoms. Smart Pups can also provide tailored mobility assistance which would be invaluable for Georgia to gain some independence, in helping her to get up and down off the ground, help her to dress herself and to pick things up for her.
But to receive a Smart Pup, Paula needs to fund-raise $25,000.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Georgia gain a Smart Pup.
To donate visit www.gofundme.com/smart-pup-for-georgia
