Nicole's Story

When you’re 8 years old the world and all its endless possibilities stretch before you. You love school, playing soccer, riding your bike and dancing. Nicole was this typical 8 year old girl with a huge smile who awoke one November morning suffering from a bleeding blood vessel in her brain. As a result, a blood clot the size of a plum formed on the right side of her brain leaving Nicole’s left side resembling a stroke.  During emergency neurosurgery in Boston, the clot was removed and Nicole’s left arm, torso and leg remained in a weakened state. With a fierce determination and strong will Nicole and her family began a rigorous therapy schedule to help her regain her prior level of activity. Eight months later Nicole has regained 95% of her left arm and a good amount of movement in her upper leg. Only her left foot has a way to go and with Electronic Stimulation (Estim) was making great progress. With the help of this stimulation she can regain muscle strength that has atrophied and fire up brain connectors so that she will walk without any brace or evidence of gait problems. This will also spare her from any future surgeries on her hips or knees. Nicole and her family were hopeful that the little girl who was goalie of her soccer team would fully recover.  That is until March 23, 2005 when her physical therapy benefits were exhausted. Unfortunately she only receives 60 visits per her lifetime.

What is a family to do at this point? Fortunately through the help of local therapist they were put in contact with the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation. This foundation, created to assist families with children with special needs reviewed the request to purchase the Electronic Stimulation unit and controller. It was unanimously approved by the board and the machine was purchased and is being used by Nicole and her physical therapist.

With the help of the foundation and her therapists her future and its possibilities are endless just the way it should be when you’re eight years old!