Community Corner

Help a Local Girl With Her Fight Against Rare Neurological Disorder

Two years ago, the February day began as any other. A few hours later, Alex Berube was unable to move due to Transverse Myelitis.

"No fear, just faith." 

That's how East Hartford resident Alex Berube signed off on her most recent blog entry. On Feb. 2, 2012, Berube's day started out as it always did, but by 7 a.m., she was unable to move or feel the lower half of her body. 

"She was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis, a rare neurological disorder that causes paralysis," her father Jeff Berube wrote. "Why she got it? The doctors don't know. Possibly from a virus she came in contact with weeks before she became paralyzed. The why she got it doesn't even matter anymore... what matters is what we can do fix it! And make our beautiful girl's life as functional and happy as possible."

The family was able to purchase a stander to help Alex be upright and was raising money to help with a trip to Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center in Baltimore, M.D.

Alex's father started a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for Alex but things didn't go the way they had planned.

"In June, Alex was in the hospital for pain... which continued through the entire summer," Jeff wrote. "Back in the hospital in September, that's when they found Alex had severe neuromuscular scoliosis."

Alex is at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. On Jan. 6 of this year, she underwent a complete spinal fusion and a pelvic fusion, Jeff said.

"As for now, compared to where we were in June, our entire focus has changed," her father wrote on the GoFundMe page. "Changed to helping our daughter recover from this surgery... she will need all new equipment. A new wheelchair, leg braces, a different stander... the list goes on and on." 

If you can help Alex, visit her GoFundMe page. As of Jan. 20, the community donated $9,640 out of $15,000.


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