Performing on Britain’s Got Talent in front of 12 million people, Julia Carlile was convinced it would be the last time she would dance.
The schoolgirl’s lungs were being crushed by her spine as the scoliosis she had battled since birth made every move agony.
Viewers heard how the only operation available on the NHS would leave Julia unable to dance afterwards, making it was one of the most emotional moments in the show’s history.
Julia Carlile's curved spine threatened to end her dance career
While she and the MerseyGirls did not win after reaching the final of the show, Julia went back home to The Wirral, Merseyside, with something more valuable – a promise from Simon Cowell that he would pay £175,000 for two operations in the US.
And now, three months after her last surgery, Julia is back in dance class with her friends.
Simon Cowell paid for Julia to have operations in the USA
Speaking for the first time since she returned to training, Julia, 15, says: “Dancing again, surrounded by my friends, is the best feeling in the world.
“I was desperate to perform again, but when I got to class I was really nervous.
“I didn’t know how my body would cope and I was scared of hurting myself.
“But when I went in everyone walked up and hugged me. I was so pleased to be back. It was overwhelming.”
Julia is practising as often as possible with the MerseyGirls, and in just four months will be performing in a new live show alongside BGT legends, including Paul Potts and Susan Boyle.
Julia shot to fame with the MerseyGirls on Britain's Got Talent
It is a bright future she once could never have imagined.
Julia , who lives with mum Kate, 39, an admin worker, and sister Alice, 17, was born with a curved spine, known as scoliosis, which got steadily worse and would have ended her dancing career if left untreated.
Fusion surgery available on the NHS meant having a rod in her back, which would have left her too stiff to dance.
Her only hope was to go to the US for surgery to screw a cord to her spine, straightening it while allowing her the flexibility to dance.
Julia, Alice and the rest of the MerseyGirls, Poppy Gerrard, 15, Annie Winstanley, 17, and Rebecca Jordan, 16, entered BGT hoping to win the £250,000 to pay for the operations.
The teen in hospital after an operation to treat her scoliosis
They reached the final but narrowly missed out on the cash after a chair Julia stood on during the routine started to move beneath her feet. It was a heartbreaking end to what threatened to be Julia’s last performance.
But then Simon met the girls backstage and offered to pay.
Julia says: “When Simon said, ‘It’s going to happen’, I was in tears. I thought the Britain’s Got Talent final was the last dance I was ever going to do.
“By then my back was really painful. As the curve in my spine got worse it started crushing my lungs, so dancing became really difficult.
"So if it wasn’t for Simon I probably would have had the fusion by now and I’d be recovering at home.
Julia is now dancing again and will join Britain’s Got Talent's The Big Celebration
"I’d be a mess because I’d know I wasn’t going to dance again. I’d be like, ‘What do I do now?’”
Instead, Julia flew to New York on July 23 and had the first six-hour operation two days later, followed by a second on August 6.
Surgeons had to deflate one of her lungs while they moved her spine, and the rehabilitation has been very tough.
She says: “Recovering was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There were days when I didn’t want to get out of my hospital bed because it hurt so much, but I reminded myself I had to do it if I wanted to dance again.”
Julia managed a few simple steps just nine days after her second operation and after two months was able to stop taking painkillers.
Her surgery was paid for by Simon Cowell after he learnt of her agony
But while she only suffers the occasional ache now, she still has to push her body to recover her dancing physique.
She does breathing exercises 10 times a day to improve her lung capacity, swims regularly to rebuild muscles, and does daily back stretches to reshape her spine.
Julia says: “I have to push my body where it doesn’t want to go to straighten my curve. It gets quite sore, but the pain is nowhere near as bad as it was before.”
Julia returned to ballet class earlier this month. Her first aim was to build core strength, and her dance teacher had to simplify many of the moves as she could not twist or turn.
Now she’s doing more and more each time, and is training with the MerseyGirls twice a week.
The MerseyGirls are going on tour after their meteoric Britain's Got Talent success
But she was devastated to miss out on performing with the MerseyGirls at the National Reality Television Awards last month.
Julia says: “It was so hard to watch. They looked amazing. All I wanted was to be out there with them. I can do most things again now, I’m just not allowed to do any big jumps yet.”
Julia has been cautious, naturally, but doctors say if her scan goes well next month she can even do backflips again.
She says: “I get more scared before trying new moves now. I’ve come so far, I don’t want anything to go wrong. Once you’ve done it you start to believe in yourself a bit more. Eventually everything should be easier than it was before.”
Julia wrote to Simon to thank him for funding the operations and was thrilled when he called her.
She says: “I told him how he had changed my life. I’m so grateful for everything he has done. Then Simon asked me how I was doing and when I said I was finding it hard not dancing, he told me to make sure I took it easy and didn’t rush things.
Julia will be joined on stage by huge stars including Paul Potts and Susan Boyle(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
“He said when he waved at the start of the next America’s Got Talent it would be for me. When I thanked him he said I didn’t need to, he couldn’t have stood by and done nothing. He is amazing.”
Big-hearted Simon had another surprise in store for Julia. She and the MerseyGirls are going to be the star guests for Britain's Got Talent, The Big Celebration.
The two charity concerts at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre in February will raise money for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, which cared for Julia after her diagnosis.
They will be joined by some of BGT’s legendary names including SuBo, Paul Potts, Collabro, Attraction and magician Lance Corporal Richard Jones.
Ashleigh will also be there with new dog Sully, who is following in Pudsey’s pawprints, as well as Star Wars dancers Boogie Storm, magician Jamie Raven, singers Lucy Kay, Sarah Ikumu, and Richard and Adam, and martial artist Jesse-Jane McParland.
Julia says: “Appearing on Britain’s Got Talent has made my dreams come true.
“Now the MerseyGirls can carry on dancing for ever and ever, which is what we always dreamed of.”
Tickets to Britain’s Got Talent, The Big Celebration go on sale from Ticketmaster on Friday at 9am, priced from £21.
Scoliosis, the medical term for curvature of the spine, affects millions of people, an estimated 2 to 3 percent of the population. The most common form is idiopathic scoliosis (in which the cause is unknown), and it most commonly occurs between the ages of 10 and 18. Girls are much more likely than boys to require treatment.
The severity of scoliosis and the need for treatment is determined by the angle at which the spine is out of normal alignment. Milder cases generally require no treatment.
If the spinal curve is less than 25 degrees, ongoing monitoring is recommended to see if the angle is increasing.
If the curve is increasing over time, or if it is between 25 and 40 degrees, treatment with bracing is used.
When the angle exceeds 45 to 50 degrees, surgical correction may be necessary.
Great progress has been made in recent years in treatment for that middle range of scoliosis to stop the progression and avoid the need for surgery. Jennifer Winell, MD, an attending surgeon at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) who specializes in non-surgical scoliosis treatment, explains. “Braces hadn’t changed much in 20 or 30 years. Some of us in the field began to look for innovative alternatives. Medicine is advancing and we thought there might be new ways to treat scoliosis.”
New non-surgical options
Dr. Winell’s research did find two significant advances, and these are now options for treatment at CHOP. Used in combination, they hold great promise for stopping the progression of scoliosis before it gets severe enough to require surgery.
The first is a new type of brace, developed by a physician in Spain. The brace is lighter than traditional scoliosis braces. It is made of thinner material, so it doesn’t get as hot. It attaches in front, not in back, so it’s easier to put on and take off. And, most importantly, it provides three-dimensional correction, where traditional braces only provided side-to-side pressure.
The second element in treatment is a new type of physical therapy, called Schroth exercises, developed in Germany and refined over time by therapists around the world. The exercises are tailored to the specific spinal curvature problems of each patient, and work on posture, strength, breathing, the functions of daily life and self-image.
“The combination of improvements makes the brace more appealing to patients and more effective,” says Dr. Winell. “When combined with the Schroth exercises, kids feel more active in their own care. And when they feel involved, they do a better job of sticking with the treatment. That makes a huge difference in the outcomes. I’m seeing it in my practice. We’ve been offering this for a year now, so it’s too early to have definitive data. But when kids come in after their first couple of months with the brace and the therapy, I’m seeing real progress.”
Because there’s a genetic component to scoliosis, some parents of young patients have experience themselves with older treatments. Their own discomfort with earlier braces may make some hesitant about seeking treatment for their children. Parents and patients should know that recent advances in non-surgical scoliosis treatment have made them more comfortable, more engaging and more effective.
Source : Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia , 24 Oct 2017
With her team facing match point in a grueling, five-set volleyball contest in early September, Lampeter-Strasburg senior Becca Cohen raced after a wayward pass toward the sideline.
She bumped the ball diagonally across her body, sending it cross-court off the top of the net and over to the other side. The ball landed out of bounds, however, resulting in the Pioneers' first loss of the season.
Instinctively, Emma Cohen —likewise a senior and the Pioneers' setter — walked over and gave Becca an appreciative pat on the back.
The gesture is not unusual for teammates, let alone teammates who happen to be sisters. Yet for someone who is not even a year removed from spinal fusion surgery, a simple pat on the back can put the game of volleyball into a rather unique perspective.
The curve
During a routine physical prior to the 2016 school year, Becca, 16, learned she had an atypical curvature of the spine known as scoliosis.
According to Genetics Home Reference, a website run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is the most common cause of spinal abnormalities in children and teens, affecting 2 to 3 percent of youth in the United States.
Although not all instances require surgery, scoliosis in its progressive form occurs more commonly in girls, with both genetic and environmental factors believed to play a role.
In Becca's case, the diagnosis was surprisingly sudden, considering she had previously undergone screenings for scoliosis due to a genetic history of the condition on her father's side of the family.
"We had always been checking since we were younger because my grandma had it, and I had been fine up to then," Becca said. "(In 2016) when I bent over, my back, the one side was elevated."
At that point, Becca already had a 50-degree curve in her lower back, with a smaller, compensatory curve in her upper back.
"We talked to the surgeon at DuPont and basically I was going to need surgery at some point because it was going to continually progress," Becca explained. "We just thought it was best to do when I was young and could recover easily."
Along with her parents, Saul and JoAnn Cohen, and with input from her guidance counselor at Lampeter-Strasburg, Becca elected to have surgery following the end of volleyball season in her junior year.
Performed the day after Thanksgiving at the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware, the surgery —termed posterior spinal fusion with instrumentation — combined both the fusion of vertebrae and the insertion of a pair of titanium rods to straighten and stabilize the lower curve.
Incredibly, Becca was discharged from the hospital just three days later.
"I was amazed, incrementally how much better she got," JoAnn Cohen said. "But the first two weeks were pretty hard. When she came home, she couldn't roll over by herself in bed. When she wanted to move, I had to physically help her roll. That only took another night until she could kind of do it on her own."
"My mom stayed with me every day at the hospital. She slept over there," Becca recalled. "My dad came up with my siblings; they talked to me and distracted me. It was nice to have them there. When I got back to the house, my mom was always right there if I needed anything. I couldn't have gone through this without her."
Family history
Becca's grandmother underwent one of the first "Harrington Rod" surgeries, performed by Dr. Paul Harrington in the late 1950s. That method did not involve spinal fusion, however, and due to complications, she spent six months in a body cast.
"I talked to her more and found out about the body cast and how tough her experience was," Becca said. "I was glad that I wasn't going to have to go through what she did, but it was comforting to know that she understood what I was going through."
In the same way that her grandmother's experience provided context for her own, Becca's experience offers context for her younger brother, who battles scoliosis, as well, and wears a back brace to hopefully negate the need for surgery later on.
"I feel bad for him because he's going through a different experience than I had to, with bracing," Becca said.
But athleticism, particularly on the volleyball court, also seems to run in the Cohen family. Saul and JoAnn met while playing volleyball in Atlantic City; JoAnn still plays the sport, coaches at the middle school level and is president of the booster club.
Emma started playing volleyball regularly when she was 12 years old and Becca followed suit. Five years later, both players serve as captains on Lampeter-Strasburg's team along with fellow senior Hailey Hildenbrand.
"(Becca is) a little more organized, and I make sure everything is still loose and everyone is having fun," Emma said of the shared captaincy. "She's very smart. You can see that even playing volleyball. I always know where I'm supposed to be; she always knows where she's supposed to be and everyone else on the court."
Growth and support
Becca began physical therapy about six weeks after surgery to help rebuild and strengthen her back muscles. After about four months, she began practicing volleyball again with Emma's club team and in open gyms.
In that time, Becca added an inch to her 5-foot-10 frame as a result of the surgery. She doesn't generally experience pain, but can sometimes feel the surgery's effects. "It doesn't inhibit anything," she said. "I have a little less mobility with twisting and some of that, but I'm pretty much playing the same as I used to."
Becca returned to game action last June in the Pottstown Rumble doubles tournament, partnering with Pioneers' junior Alexa Troiano, who happened to be coming off her own surgery for a torn ACL.
"I've been friends with Alexa for so long, so it was nice to get out and play with her," Becca said. "It was raining that day so we were both a little nervous, but it was just nice to be playing the sport I love again. I think we both felt that way."
In the meantime, keeping up with school work and her social life wasn't terribly difficult for the straight-A student. Having tested out of the seventh grade — she will still be just 16 years old when she graduates high school — Becca and Emma have shared the same circle of friends for quite a while.
That partly explains their mutual desire to attend different colleges next year. While Emma is looking to be the fourth generation of her family to attend Penn State, Becca is considering Georgetown or Pitt, where she hopes to study medicine.
"I've always been good at math and science," Becca said. "Watching ‘Grey's Anatomy’ sparked my interest in medicine and being a doctor. Then going through this experience, seeing how much the doctors and the nurses influenced me and how much they helped me, that really got me interested."
Whatever paths Emma and Becca take, volleyball will keep them linked, even if they aren't seeking to play competitively in college.
And whether on the court, in college or in a career in medicine, Becca can be certain that her friends, her teammates, and of course, her family, will always have her back.
If you thought an autonomous robot dentist implanting 3D printed teeth into a patient’s mouth was astoundingly innovative and maybe a little scary, buckle your seat belt – for the first time, a robot has completed spinal surgery on a child with severe progressive scoliosis. The groundbreaking surgery took place at the University Hospital of Amiens (CHU d’Amiens) in France.
6-year-old Louis is handicapped with a genetic disorder known as infantile spinal amyotrophy – his back was bent at an extreme angle, which has caused him some breathing trouble. Rehabilitation, back braces, and orthopedic corsets were not helping, and he has spent the last six months lying flat in bed.
A robot named ROSA was tasked with completing a very important part of the obviously necessary surgery: the installation of ilio-sacral screws into the patient’s spine.
“It was a question of placing illio-sacral screws and hooks at the top of the back, connected by arched rods to straighten the back,” explained Professor Richard Gouron, the patient’s head of surgery. “The installation of the screws seven millimeters in diameter in a bone corridor of eight millimeters near the roots nervous system remains very complex and rare, they are voluminous in view of the small size of the child’s bones.”
Over the past year, Professor Gouron, pediatric orthopedic surgeon Dr. François Deroussen, and neurosurgeon Dr. Michel Lefranc have been working tirelessly to simulate the robotic operation before it took place.
Dr. Lefranc said, “The surgeon plans the operation, the robot carries the instruments, and takes into account the movements of the patient. He brings the precision and three-dimensional vision.”
Thanks to 3D printing technology, a reproduction of the young patient’s spinal column was added to a mannequin for simulation purposes, so that the 15-person surgical team could practice ahead of time, and even simulate the entire operation twice before even attempting it on Louis.
“This is two firsts in one. A first in simulation, and a first surgery, the placement of ilio-sacral screws with the help of a robot,” explained Professor Gouron.”The incisions are smaller thanks to the robot, there is less post-operative pain and the patient can sit more quickly.”
Post-surgery X-ray
Louis sitting up on 8 October
We’ve seen studies that show 3D printed surgical models can save on costs, but more importantly, they can also reduce the amount of time patients have to spend on the operating table, because it gives surgeons the chance to practice complicated procedures ahead of time.
The successful surgery took place on September 28th, and it only took three hours to place screws in the pelvis and hooks at the top of the back, which were then connected by rods. Louis has recovered very well – not only can he breathe better, but he can also sit up correctly again.
Dr. Deroussen, who originally initiated the project, said, “This is a great victory.”
Due to the success of this first robotic spinal surgery, four other children will soon have identical surgeries to fix their spines.
Flexpine Orthosis is receiving spotlight as Flexpine Research Center which supplies customized medical devices relocated to Seoul National University Hospital in Bundang last year. Based on thorough research and studies mutually performed in the Healthcare Innovation Park at Seoul National University Hospital in Bundang, the Flexpine Orthosis is spotlighted as an alternative medical treatment for its minimized discomforts and effectiveness in treating scoliosis.
Located on the 4th floor of Healthcare Innovation Park at Seoul National University in Bundang, the Flexpine Orthosis Research Center is a healthcare center which utilizes detailed body measurement information and 3D printer to produce an accurately designed order based orthosis.
A percentage of patients being treated with conventional scoliosis orthosis complained for the discomforts when wearing the stiff braces. The patients to bend the upper body in order for adequate exercises, the conventional sedentary orthosis devices created certain discomforts when bending because the stiff devices are composed of hard plastic. Also, the sedentary devices hardly allowed for the patients to move, which means that the patients cannot simultaneously wear the device and perform spine adjustment exercises, which is an essential part of rehabilitation.
On the other hand, Flexpine Orthosis utilizes flexible and hard plastics for necessary parts along with elastic bands, which facilitates easy wearing and allows the patients to perform spine adjustment exercises simultaneously.
Flexpine Orthosis Research Center plans to export its products worldwide after going through patents and medical approvals.
Flexpine Research Center is a South Korean company which aims to make reasonably wearable medical devices with 3D printers. Flexpine Brace 0is light, wearable, and unshowing to others when seen outside. It can also be a genuinely helpful and effective brace who wants a comfortable device for scoliosis rehabilitating journey.
Flexpine Research Center offers an excellent experience for detailed body measurements, product trial and x-rays scans.
Early detection and new treatment methods help doctors treat the spinal condition using magnets – and fewer surgeries.
Some curves in life are great – the curve on a mountain road that leads to a great view, or curveballs from a star baseball pitcher – while other curves, like a spine that bends from side to side, can mean trouble for a growing body. And while some cases of scoliosis are congenital (meaning children are born with vertebral curves) or neuromuscular (stemming from cerebral palsy, spina bifida or other conditions), about 80 percent of scoliosis cases are idiopathic – doctor speak for “we don’t really know why it occurs” – and tend to develop during puberty.
According to Dr. Christina Sayama, pediatric neurosurgeon at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, both parents and primary care physicians should be on the lookout for markers of this condition, which impacts up to 9 million Americans.
“Early detection is key to avoiding surgery or complications with the heart and lungs,” says Dr. Sayama.
Scoliosis tends to run in families, so be sure to speak to your pediatrician about any family history of spinal conditions, and watch for the development of uneven shoulders or hips, an unusual gait or a spine that curves to one side when a child bends over.
“Once scoliosis is suspected, the gold standard of diagnosis is an upright spinal X-ray – and anything greater than 10 degrees of curvature is considered scoliosis,” explains Dr. Sayama. “Up to 20 degrees is considered mild; between 20 and 40 degrees, many neurosurgeons and orthopaedic doctors will recommend using a brace; and I will recommend surgery for a curve greater than 45 degrees.”
For growing bodies with mild scoliosis, Dr. Sayama often recommends physical therapy and core strengthening in addition to the proven strategy of wearing a brace.
“The longer a child wears the brace every day, the more likely they are to succeed in keeping the curve from progressing and needing surgery,” she explains.
And what about when surgery is necessary? In the past, a severe scoliosis diagnosis meant multiple surgeries – every 6-9 months – to lengthen growing rods that guided the spine into a healthier position. Thankfully, a new treatment is drastically reducing the number of surgeries necessary for little ones. Called the Magec Growing Rod System, the technique requires an initial surgery to implant temporary growth rods that can be lengthened by magnets from outside the body until a child reaches skeletal maturity. That means less time in the hospital, and more time practicing those curveballs
The four-hour-long deformity correction surgery is a new kind of success for the doctors.
Representational Image !
A team of doctors at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) in Delhi performed a complex, albeit successful surgery upon a 21-month-old boy suffering from kyphotic deformity. Also known as spinal cord deformity, it leads to an excessive outside curvature of the spine which causes hunching.
The doctors explained that generally, upper back spine is normally curved outwards to a certain degree which in medical terms is called "kyphosis" or the "kyphotic" curve. The four-hour-long deformity correction surgery is a new kind of success for the doctors.
"We conducted MRI which revealed that there was destruction of back bones due to tuberculosis, which caused severe deformity and spinal cord compression leading to weakness in the legs," said Gururaj Sangondimath, Consultant Spine Surgery, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), in a statement.
The normal curvature of neck and lower back bends the spine inward. These outward and inward curves of the spine help the spine to bear the load of a person with less energy consumption. Abnormal curvature is known as kyphotic deformity.
In this case, the boy had a curvature of 110 degrees, whereas normal curvature is up to 40 to 45 degrees. For the team of doctors treating the patient, the procedure was not without challenges, the doctor pointed out. The boy's deformity was corrected by reducing the curvature to 40 degrees from 110 degrees. "This was a highly challenging case of kyphosis, especially due to the age of the patient.
It is for the first time in India that such a young child has successfully undergone a spinal deformity correction," Sangondimath said.
Emiah Ellis was previously diagnosed with scoliosis, which causes the spine to twist and curve to the side
******************************************************************************** Emiah Ellis is now recovering at home in the UK after the surgery
A teenage girl who underwent a life-changing operation thanks to generous strangers is proudly showing off the outcome.
Emiah Ellis, 14, wore a t-shirt reading 'Made in Wales, Modified in Germany' after the successful procedure to straighten her spine.
The teen was previously diagnosed with scoliosis, which causes the spine to twist and curve to the side, and usually starts in children aged 10-15.
She was unable to undergo the costly operation in Germany after a fundraising effort collected £30,000.
Surgeons had to deflate her lung before inserting six screws into her spine and tugging on a thread which pulled it in straight, her mum told WalesOnline.
Emiah, 14, shows off her t-shirt with Dr Per Trobisch
Emiah, of Brynna, South Wales, is now recovering at home after returning from Germany.
Her mum Menna Garland-Ellis said the problem started when Emiah, who has always been very sporty, started getting hurt after practice on a regular basis.
She said: “Two years ago she was in a swimming squad and into athletics, doing a lot of training, and every time she was coming home, she was complaining about a bad shoulder thinking she’d pulled a muscle.
“I took her to a physio, thinking you can’t pull a muscle every time, there must be something else going on. The physio said if you look, her shoulders aren’t in alignment and she had to be referred to hospital.
“They told us she had scoliosis of the spine.”
Emiah was then faced with a choice – have an operation that could potentially restrict her movement or do nothing and stay in pain.
She opted for vertebral body tethering (VBT), also known as fusionless surgery, which preserves flexibilty and growth by not stiffening the spine.
The operation at the Eifelklinik clinic in Simmerath last month used nuts and bolts instead of rods.
To cover the cost, the family raised £30,000, with donations coming from relatives, friends and the community.
Menna said: “We were going down the route of having an operation where they put rods in your back but her curve is very low down, so they said it could affect her movement."
She said of the operation in Germany: “Instead of using rods, they don’t operate from the back, they operate from the sides and made two slits on her side, deflated her lung and inserted six screws placed on her spine and pull a thread through the nuts and bolts and when they pull it tighter, it pulls the spine in straight.
“But what that means is she can still bend, she’s still got her flexibilty.”
Now Emiah is back at home and has stunned the doctors with her impressive recovery.
Her mum said: “She was really positive. They kept commenting how brave and determined she was. She was walking up the stairs on the third day after her operation. They said they’ve never had somebody do so much so quick.
“She can’t do anything now while she’s healing and we have to wait for the scars to heal before she can go back to swimming. But she should be able to continue. It’s going to take a while to build up to the same levels she was at before, but she’s done really well.
“We had to raise a lot of money and this is a great help. It’s early days, but the operation will hopefully mean Emiah will keep her flexibility and live a normal everyday life.”
