7-Year Old Ballerina Loses Use of Legs

Seven-year-old Sullivan was a budding ballerina. Up on your toes. Until a mystery illness left her unable to walk. My legs don't work. At that point, I was terrified. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Desperate to find a diagnosis, Tricia gets a referral to a top orthopedic specialist. We had heard wonderful things about her. Can you flex your right foot, Sullivan, like this? And we were very hopeful that she would be able to find out what was the matter with Sullivan. What about your left foot? After examining Sullivan's feet, the orthopedist offers her diagnosis. Your daughter appears to have a shortened Achilles tendon. The Achilles tendon connects the calf muscle to the heel. If the tendon doesn't grow properly, it can pull on the foot and inhibit walking. What can you do for that? Well, normally, we try physical therapy. But given the duration and severity of her symptoms, I would recommend surgery. The surgery involves incising, lengthening, and reattaching both of Sullivan's Achilles tendons so she can walk flat-footed. That night, Tricia researches the risks of the procedure, which could leave her daughter permanently disabled. I was concerned about it. But I didn't know what else to do. All the other tests came back negative. And this was what they recommended. Two weeks later, Sullivan undergoes surgery to both of her feet. She's fitted with protective casts to allow her tendons to heal. Mommy, it hurts. The casts cause Sullivan excruciating and unrelenting pain. She was complaining of real specific things, tightening, and just extreme pressure squeezing her legs. I'm going to get you some more medicine. I expected for Sullivan to be in some pain. But after about a day or two, the pain was not getting any better. She was taking pain medicine. She was taking muscle relaxants. I want you to try to sleep, OK? And nothing really made her comfortable. I knew in my gut something was wrong. Concerned that the casts are doing more harm than good, Tricia takes Sullivan back to the orthopedic specialist. I just wanted those casts off. I wanted to do anything I could do to put her out of pain. The doctors felt like they should be on longer and that we just needed to tough it out. I knew she wasn't going to be comfortable while the casts were on. After another week of pain, the doctor agrees to remove Sullivan's casts and let her begin physical therapy. I'm just going to raise it a little bit here, OK? We were very hopeful and optimistic that Sullivan would be walking again. OK, you ready? The hope is that with her tendons lengthened, her feet will return to their normal position. But that's not what happens. I can't. Her toes curled right back under, her foot turned inward, and it was preventing her from walking again. The surgery accomplished nothing. Very disappointing that we had gone through this surgery and it wasn't the answer. We thought that we were done and we had to start again. There was still something wrong with Sullivan and we didn't know what it was.