Courage takes many forms. Most people think of it as a way of facing down enemies or standing on principle. However, a seven-year-old Irish girl named Katie shows her own courage as she overcomes multiple medical issues and sees the bright future she wants to have.
Katie Lonergan, from Kilkenny, stayed in the hospital for the first few months of her life. When she was released from the hospital nearly five months after her birth in 2009, her parents were told that she was nearly completely deaf. Approximately a year later, her parents learned that she also had cerebral palsy (CP).
While receiving treatment in the USA in 2013, doctors diagnosed her with dystonia as well.
In time, Katie’s dysfunctional motor skills may present a situation where she will struggle to achieve the sorts of activities that other children her age enjoy. Both disorders are incurable and lifelong.
However, meeting other people with these diseases has given Katie and her parents hope for her future.
This past Christmas season, during her break from her first grade classes, she traveled to Dallas, Texas with her family, her parents Aisling and John as well as her brother Jamie. Her parents admitted that they knew very little in practice about what dystonia was.
While in Dallas, they met with a leading neurologist, Dr. Jan Brunstrom. Dr. Brunstrom is quite important to Katie and her family as she too has cerebral palsy and dystonia. Despite these circumstances, Dr. Brunstrom has persevered, which brings hope to the Lonergan family.
Aisling and John feel like they finally understand what it means to have dystonia.
However, seeing Dr. Brunstrom makes them think that this too will only be a bump in the road for their daughter.
If Katie receives the right kind of braces for her CP and medication for her dystonia, she has a whole world of possibilities ahead of her. Her parents are excited about the new possibilities that 2017 has to offer.
Learn more about Katie’s journey by clicking here.
