Early in 2019, 4yo Isla was diagnosed with epilepsy, and in April 2020 she was finally diagnosed with Rasmussens Encephalitis. This is a rare disease with only five hundred known cases worldwide, twelve
in Australia and Isla is only the second from Tasmania.
This disease causes inflammation on the brain that progressively eats away at the brain cells on one hemisphere of the brain. The only definitive treatment is a hemispherectomy (which is a disconnection of the right-hand side of her brain). This surgery comes with irreversible consequences.
Towards the end of August 2020, Isla will travel to Melbourne to undergo a major surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital to be undertaken early in September. At this early stage, there are many unknowns as to what impact this operation will have on Isla and her family’s quality of life. However, the most likely outcomes the family are trying to embrace themselves for, is that Isla will wake up with vision impairment and be partially paralysed down the left side of her body.
Karissa & Jimmy, Isla’s parents, will be unable to work for quite some time due to those circumstances and while trying to learn to live with the new ‘normal’ for Isla and their one-year old daughter Tilly.
For more information please visit https://tasfundraising.variety.org.au/support-a-fundraiser/isla
LEARN HOW TO HELPEarly in 2019, 4yo Isla was diagnosed with epilepsy, and in April 2020 she was finally diagnosed with Rasmussens Encephalitis. This is a rare disease with only five hundred known cases worldwide, twelve
in Australia and Isla is only the second from Tasmania.
This disease causes inflammation on the brain that progressively eats away at the brain cells on one hemisphere of the brain. The only definitive treatment is a hemispherectomy (which is a disconnection of the right-hand side of her brain). This surgery comes with irreversible consequences.
Towards the end of August 2020, Isla will travel to Melbourne to undergo a major surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital to be undertaken early in September. At this early stage, there are many unknowns as to what impact this operation will have on Isla and her family’s quality of life. However, the most likely outcomes the family are trying to embrace themselves for, is that Isla will wake up with vision impairment and be partially paralysed down the left side of her body.
Karissa & Jimmy, Isla’s parents, will be unable to work for quite some time due to those circumstances and while trying to learn to live with the new ‘normal’ for Isla and their one-year old daughter Tilly.
For more information please visit https://tasfundraising.variety.org.au/support-a-fundraiser/isla
