Young Whitsunday Mum Faces Life In Wheelchair

A young mum with a severe spinal cord injury is currently adjusting to life as a quadriplegic and coming to terms with being confined to a wheelchair every day.

Just three months ago Cassie Thorpe was still able to drive a car short distances and hold her 20 month old daughter in her arms, but as a severe decline in the disease she had been battling for the past 13 years took hold, her life took a dramatic turn.

In her teenage years, after noticing the muscles in her hands had started wasting away, Cassie was diagnosed with a Hirayama Disease and attended fortnightly medical appointments to receive intravenous medicine at the Mackay Base hospital for two years.

After she completed this treatment, the symptoms seemed to plateau and she went on to live a relatively normal life.

When her daughter, Sienna, came along however, she noticed a rapid decline.

Desperately trying keep positive, Cassie was determined to continue as normal but in June this year she was losing all movement in her legs, her left foot had started to drop and the left side of her body began to drag.

Living in a little cottage out the back of her parents’ rural property in Gregory River, Cassie was struggling to cope.

“She was collapsing and falling all the time,” said her mum, Jenny.

“She was battered with bruises from the falls. It took us a long time to convince her because she didn’t want to leave Sienna, but eventually she let us call an ambulance.”

Cassie was taken to Proserpine Hospital where she spent five days before being flown to the Royal Brisbane Hospital and transferred to the spinal cord unit to receive specialist care.

The last few months have been some of the most traumatic in Cassie’s life, not only has she had to be without her baby daughter, but she has also endured spasms and severe pain, and is unable to look after herself.

She now needs 24-hour care and can only move a little of her right finger which enables her to drive her electrical wheelchair.

“She always looked lovely when she went out,” said Jenny.

“She was used to having a shower twice a day minimum, at hospital it’s once a day or if they’re busy with an emergency it is every other day – that was really hard for her to take.”

Sienna is currently staying with her grandparents although she talks to her mum every day through Face time.

“The adjustment is tough, there are many nights when she rings me up and is bawling her eyes out, we are all still very much in shock,” said Jenny who now stays at home looking after Sienna every day.

“The hardest thing with Cassie is that she’s now realised that she will never pick her daughter up again - she can’t do her hair, can’t feed her, can’t dress her, can’t walk or run around with her anymore.

“Just three months ago before this all went downhill so fast, she was driving the car still, walking around with Sienna,” Jenny said.

The next step for Cassie will be moving to a 24-hour care facility in Mackay in October.

It is expected to be some time before funding comes through which will help pay for a modified bathroom and bedroom at the house.

It will be nine months before a lift to the Queenslander style house is installed.

The family are currently working on accessing funds from the Superannuation so they can build an independent living space for Cassie and her daughter under the house. The cottage out back has been deemed unsuitable now.

There is a GoFundMe page set up in Cassie’s name and if there are any tradies reading this article who might like to donate time or products, such as air-conditioning, lighting or plumbing to help please, reach out directly to Jenny on 0400 796 542.

Cassie and her daughter Sienna in happier times

Cassie at the Princess Alexandra Hospital spinal cord unit in Brisbane

Baby Sienna at home with Cassie’s mother Jenny

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