His Name Is Luca

Luca Keogh has been through a lot. And his life has only just begun.

Just four years old, Luca has Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, as well as other related conditions – including slit ventricle syndrome, cortical visual impairment, chiari malformation, hip dysplasia, club foot, tibial torsion, central sleep apnoea, sensory processing disorder and asthma.

And yet, day after day, Luca has that big, joyful smile on his face. Just to remind us all how lucky we are to be here.

We’ll let Luca’s mum, Sarah, give us the backstory…

Luca was delivered by c-section in February 2011 and transferred to Temple Street Children’s Hospital by ambulance when he was 5 hours old. He had his back opening closed when he was 2 days old and had a shunt inserted into his brain (the shunt drains cerebrospinal fluid from his brain into his stomach to stop the fluid compressing his brain) when he was 1 week old. He finally came home to Newtownmountkennedy when he was 10 days old.

Luca has had a difficult few years since, with 19 general anaesthetics, including 11 for lifesaving brain surgeries to control his hydrocephalus.

Luca has no feeling from his knees down and was never expected to walk or crawl. He has a very cool Lego spiderman wheelchair and you will see him out and about around Greystones pulling wheelies and chasing his sister, Freya.

Luca has been travelling to First Step Therapy Centre in Limerick for intensive physiotherapy since November 2013, when he was 2.5 years old. At that stage he couldn’t even sit without support. After 3 weeks of physio two hours a day, five days a week, he was able to sit up with no support, go from lying to sitting and was bum-shuffling and army crawling around on the floor.

Since then we have been working hard on our home programme and have returned to Limerick for a further 19 weeks. We have another 13 weeks of intensive physio scheduled for 2016.

Luca is now walking with the aid of splints and a walker and he has also learnt to crawl. He is a lot stronger and is much more independent.

We are continuing to fundraising to bring Luca to First Step Therapy for his intensive 3 week sessions in order to modify his home exercise plan and to continue to strengthen him up to work towards his goal of walking independently.

We run regular fundraising events and would be delighted with any help and support the lovely people of Greystones could offer us.