A Stonewall girl is forging forward after receiving a second round of stem cell therapy.
In 2020, Amaya Dawson was in a car accident that damaged her spinal cord and left her paralyzed from the chest down. She was seven years old at the time.
Two years ago, she travelled to Thailand for stem cell treatment at Verita Neuro in Bangkok since the procedure currently isn’t available in Canada. The hope is that she will regain some sensation through the treatment.
On Oct. 1, 11-year-old Amaya and her mom Alycia travelled to Verita Neuro’s sister facility in Guadalajara, Mexico, for a second round of stem cell therapy plus a week of physiotherapy.
On Day 1, Amaya had a physio session in the morning followed by a stem cell infusion in the afternoon.
“She had vitamins and electrolytes by intravenous. Then she got stem cells through an IV and she also got a lumbar injection. Because of her scoliosis, they ended up having to poke her in the back about six times before they were able to successfully get it in,” said Alycia, adding that Amaya got a second round of stem cells later in the week.
“At physio, they ended up getting her into standing, which was amazing. Amaya was over-the-moon excited.”
Unfortunately, during that first physio session, the experts discovered a problem with her left knee.
“They thought she possibly had stretched or broken tendons. Because of that finding, physio had to change dramatically since they didn’t want to make anything worse. She did lots of muscle stimulation where they would put electrodes on her thighs, calf muscles and feet to make those muscles move. When they do that, it’s like running a marathon,” Alycia said.
“She quite enjoyed it and she fell asleep most of the time. She was exhausted afterwards from having those muscles work that much. But the muscles reacted, which is great. That was awesome for her to do.”
Throughout her week at the Mexican facility, Amaya underwent 15 one-hour physiotherapy sessions before returning home on Oct. 8. Amaya joined her Grade 6 class at Ecole Stonewall Centennial School for a couple days so she could see her friends and get in a good mindset before venturing to the Children’s Hospital to have her knee examined.
After they got to the hospital, the doctor found that Amaya had a broken tibia, which is the third broken bone in her legs in one year. Since then, she has been in a full-leg cast while the bone heals.
“It had nothing to do with her tendons whatsoever. The bone underneath her calf completely snapped. Amaya doesn’t feel the pain, but she gets something else called autonomic dyslexia symptoms, which is where your body is trying to tell you that something’s wrong,” Alycia said.
“A week after we got home, she was starting to get lots of those symptoms where she was sweating and getting a fever and feeling unwell. We found out it’s because she actually had a broken leg. As soon as she got that cast on her leg, all of those symptoms went away. She’s my fragile little butterfly.”
Amaya has been seeing an endocrinology to find out about a potential treatment to strengthen her bone density.
While she heals, they’ll also be watching for any changes that might result from her recent stem cell treatment. About six weeks after her previous treatment in Thailand, she started to have more response in her legs, so they know it might take a little time to see any impacts.
Looking ahead, the family is already planning for Amaya’s next round of stem cell treatment, as long as she is eligible.
“Amaya can keep going to get stem cells as long as she keeps getting progress from them. We’re going to start saving again now. We give reports every month to her doctor in Thailand,” Alycia said.
“Around the five-month mark, he’ll let us know if she’s eligible again or not. She will go as many times as she possibly can.”
They’ll likely wait until the new year to embark on their next fundraising efforts, with a few plans already in the works.
Alycia also expressed gratitude for the community’s support and generosity throughout this entire experience.
“If it wasn’t for the community, we wouldn’t have been able to go again when we did,” she said.
“Thanks to everyone in the community from me and Amaya and our family for helping us get there.“
