My gorgeous nephew Nolan Rooms and his parents Nicole & Christian need your vote to help win the Sunsuper Dream which ends this month. Nolan needs special therapy to help him. It only takes a couple of minutes and costs nothing. . Heres a little summary of their story…. Nolan Rooms was born at 26 weeks 2 days gestation and therefore was born 3.5 months premature. He was 34cm long and weighed 915g (2lbs) at birth. After 2 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Townsville, Nolan contracted at the same time both a staphylococcus infection of the blood and a chest infection. Both of these ultimately weakened him and his system to the point that one afternoon his parents, Christian and Nicole Rooms, watched Nolan stop breathing. His heart rate almost stopped and he turned grey as the NICU doctors desperately tried to keep him going. A memory his parents will never forget. The following morning Nolan’s parents were told that he had stopped breathing several more times overnight and as a result of that his brain had been starved of oxygen, which left Nolan with a 30–40% brain tissue damage/loss predominantly on the left hand side of his brain. This is a condition called Periventricular Leukomalacia. The anticipated long term diagnosis for Nolan is a high level of physical disability called quadriplegic cerebral palsy, which is supposed to leave Nolan in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Christian and Nicole have been told that Nolan would almost certainly never roll, crawl, sit up independently, walk, talk or even swallow solid food but doctors underestimated Nolan’s determination and his parent’s devotion to their little boy. Christian and Nicole would not accept the prognosis and started to counteract the effects with early intervention. Since then Nolan has been receiving a mix of different therapies such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, aqua therapy, kinesiology and Vojta therapy on a daily basis. Vojta therapy has so far shown the largest developmental improvements for Nolan. When Nolan was 11 months old, the family was introduced to Sunshine Coast therapist Anette Jonischkeit and her German therapy Vojta. Mrs Jonischkeit, the only Vojta therapist in Australia, uses the manipulation of pressure points to alert hidden pathways in the brain to control basic movement. In Nolan’s case, his brain injury did not allow his body to know the correct movements. By targeting ideal posture and movement, the goal is to teach his body to achieve these things. After only 1 week of intensive therapy with Mrs Jonischkeit in February this year, Nolan had learned to hold his head upright, open his hands, reach out and play with toys and most excitingly started to roll himself. Since then, Christian and Nicole practised the Vojta treatment with Nolan for 30 minutes at a time, four times a day back in Townsville and were intending on returning to the Sunshine Coast to learn new Vojta treatments every three months. However, after seeing the significant developmental improvements in Nolan whilst working one-on-one with Mrs Jonischkeit, Christian and Nicole decided in July this year to move to the Sunshine Coast to benefit from daily Vojta therapy sessions until Nolan learns how to crawl. Another reason why the parents decided to leave Townsville is Nolan’s quarterly throat operations/stretches that are required for 1 more year at the Royal Childrens Hospital in Brisbane. To improve Nolan’s chances of an independent life one day, Nicole has indefinitely put her career on hold to provide full time care for Nolan and moved to the Sunshine Coast to work closely with the Vojta therapist. Christian has also left his well-payed job in Townsville to be with his family and assist with the therapy on the Sunshine Coast. Christian has managed to find a job on the Coast, which is not an easy task, but it hardly covers normal living expenses. The government assistance is only $57 a week but medical bills alone amount to more than $60,000 a year. By the time Nolan reaches 18 years of age, therapy and care will have cost more than 1.2 million … and Nolan’s independency is worth every cent. Sunsuper Dreams | Ive shared my dream to make the world a better place Ive submitted a dream on Sunsuper Dreams and have a chance to win $5,000 to make it come true. sunsuperdreams
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 09:14:49 +0000
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