From 'Curly Spine’ to Sparkles

EMMA Harte loves clothes and fashion but when her friend noticed something odd with her back when they were trying on clothes in her bedroom one afternoon, she never thought it would lead to a three-year struggle.
Emma from Cloonmore, just outside Tuam, is now 17 but has just celebrated the first anniversary of her back surgery which has transformed her life. The operation successfully corrected a 70 degree curvature of her spine, a result of being diagnosed with scoliosis four years ago.
Having visited her local GP after she noticed the slight curve in her back, she was referred to an orthapaedic consultant in Merlin Park Hospital Galway in late 2011. The diagnosis didn’t cause much alarm among the Hartes as the curve measured 34 degrees and it was thought that it wouldn’t progress.
However, the fright for all the family came six months later at a follow-up appointment when the curve had rapidly progressed and measured 46 degrees.
“I wasn’t expecting it to do that,” are the words Emma’s mum Lorraine recalls the consultant saying.
She was referred to orthopaedic surgeon Dr Pat Kiely at Crumlin Children’s Hospital. That was the start of the long and frustrating wait all the Harte family had to endure for any hope of getting Emma better.

Read the full feature in this week's edition