Jamie’s bid to walk gets a helping hand

LITTLE Jamie Lafferty has moved his left leg for the first time by himself.

Unlike other children, the two-year-old had to lay flat on his back and use a kind of upside-down bicycle machine to power the left leg with his right arm, using separate pedals. It’s a change from what he is used to, pushing himself around with his hands on a walking aid.

Jamie, an only child who will be three in May, has spina bifida — because of a pre-birth defect his spinal column cannot transmit all the messages to his brain necessary to regulate limb movements.

That changed for him when he received the first publicly-owned Giger MD machine in Ireland, the upside-down bicycle contraption that parents Stephen and Caroline are convinced will make a huge difference to Jamie’s life.

The machine is one of seven imported last week at a cost of between €12,000 and €17,000, with funds raised in last year’s annual Across Ireland Motorcycle fun run.

Massive fundraising events were linked to the run, Ireland’s largest motor-cycle event, and bikers negotiated cut-down prices for the Giger MDs that they imported from Switzerland.

Then, although the charity SBHI — Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Association Ireland — welcomed the seven machines which are expected to improve the lives of hundreds of youngsters, Revenue Commissioners insisted on a VAT payment of €22,000.

The bikers have been helping children’s charities every August for the past 11 years in their AXA/AON annual across Ireland motor cycle run. Instead of handing over a cheque they ask the charities for a wish list of what they need most.

SBHI, last year’s selected charity, opted for the Giger MDs which are not available in Ireland, through the HSE or any other source, but which have proved enormously successful in Europe and the US.

The Giger’s special function was designed and developed in Switzerland, and users around the world are linked to a data-gathering Swiss-based centre via computers linked to the machines. Regular reports and judgments are then bounced back to the user’s home laptop.

Jamie’s mother Caroline said at their home in Bruckless, Co Donegal: “Physically Jamie can manage on a walker. He’s active but he’s not as active as he should be. So, to build strength all of those muscles need to be activated every day.”

Three 20-minute sessions every week on the Giger, with 30,000 muscle and nerve movements per session, will provide Jamie with more therapy than a physio could give.

Caroline added: “In the future Jamie will be considerably improved as a result of this, with a much greater opportunity to be able to walk properly. I can’t say how well he will walk but I am very confident this will do him only good.

“When Jamie hits his teens I would hope he will not become a wheelchair user. If we hadn’t this opportunity he would definitely become a wheelchair user.”

Last year 95 children were born with spina bifida in Ireland. Most sufferers also have hydrocephalus, a fluid that developed because of the spina bifida and which rests in brain ventricles.

Bike-run organiser Nicky Carvin said that in 11 years they have raised €1.6 million for incubators, kidney dialysis machines and incubators for children.

He added that a Swiss specialist will be in Dublin tomorrow to train parents free of charge in using the Giger MD. He said: “It’s brought the battle from the 20th century into the 21st.