Sign the Scoliosis Petition

Emma’s petition is to help raise awareness about scoliosis and the need for testing in schools. To test a child for scoliosis will take less than a minute. If scoliosis is caught early enough, surgery as well as years of anguish and pain may be avoided. For many, all that is needed is a simple brace worn under clothing to help prevent the spine from twisting.

About Emma

In February 2006 Emma (then just turned 10) fell over at school on the Monday. By the Friday her mother noticed a lump on the right side of Emma's back near her shoulder blade. Emma's mother took her to Accident and Emergency where they took x-rays of her back. The doctor then told the family that Emma had scolosis and he would have to refer her to an orthopaedic consultant.

Emma saw Mr Fender at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, in April 2006 where he confirmed the diagnosis and said Emma had an S shaped curve of 58 degrees and 48 degrees. He also said that she had probably had scoliosis half her life (from probably 5 years old). Emma had a lot of hospital intervention when just a baby as she had talipes, couldn't turn her head to the right and also congenital dislocation of hips (which was actually missed until she was 6 months old and I pointed out to her physiotherapist that she didn't lie straight).

Mr Fender classed her as a moulded baby (the way she had been lying in the womb could have caused her problems with hips, feet etc). He Emma's family that due to the severity of the curves there was no other option but surgery. He was hoping to put off the operation until Emma was at least 12 but by November 2006 Emma's curves had progressed to 80 and 70 degrees and he wanted to operate sooner rather than later.

Emma was quite traumatised by the news and Mr Fender agreed to put off the surgery until after Emma's 11th birthday in January 2007. After a couple of false starts, one due to Emma having a temperature on the morning of the operation, the surgery went ahead in March 2007. Emma's spine was completely fused, the scar runs down from her neck to the bottom of her spine. She still has a curve of 20 and 18 degrees and a slight rib hump but the surgeon did a fantastic job as he only expected to get the curves down to 40 degrees.

Emma has gained 3 inches in height and a lot in confidence since the operation. Although she said just after her operation that she wished she had not gone through with it, now she can't imagine life the way she was before the operation and she is thankful that it went ahead when it did. She can't think what she would have been like if the scoliosis had not been detected and her back had continued to twist. This drove her to start the petition to try and help others going through what she did. Emma believes that if schools tested for scoliosis a lot of children would have their curves detected before the need for surgery which is difficult at any time but very hard to cope with when only 11 years old.

Emma is a member of the ScoliosisNutty Yahoo Group and we have been following her progress.