Jacob was born with a Congenital CMV infection to the brain. Meaning sections of the brain had actually calcified and could not develop properly. He was given a 60% chance of survival. At 9 months of age, Jacob was diagnosed with severe spastic Cerebral Palsy, affecting all four of his limbs. Today, Jacob is a beautiful 6 year old , but unlike most little boys his age, Jacob is unable to sit, stand or walk without support.
Although Jacob is unable to speak he manages to communicate with sounds, eye contact and body language. Due to the very high tone that affects Jacobs body, he is unable to eat like we do, and now has a gastroscopy, which is a button in his stomach, through which he is feed by a tube. Jacob also suffers from severe epilepsy, which is mainly triggered off by illness and the heat. Due to Jacob being wheelchair bound, his body lacks exercise and as a result he doesn't sleep much. He can wake anywhere from 2 - 12 times a night - exhausting everybody!
About 18 months ago Jacob under went an 8 hour operation on both his hips and spent 2 months in a `hip spiker', covered in plaster from under his arms to his toes. Jacob's hips had dislocated not only due to his high tone, but from lack of exercise.
Jacob's ever increasing growth and weight gain is also making it harder to work with him. Therefore, the only safe and affective means of exercise is swimming and hydrotherapy.
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This allows Jacob's body to become weightless and he is easily able to move his limbs freely without pain and stress. The excitement and joy that Jacob shows when swimming and the success he feels when being able to kick his legs and move about, compensates for all the other difficulties he faces on a daily bases.
When given the opportunity to swim regularly, Jacob's health not only improves, but he manages to sleep through the night and his seizures decrease rapidly. It will also greatly reduce the chance of any more hips problems. To have a pool of our own will not only be a dream come true, but will give Jacob the quality of life he deserves. On behalf of Jacob we can not thank you enough for the extreme kindness and generosity you have shown and we will be forever grateful to you for bringing such joy in to our son's life.
THANKYOU!
David & Sharon Spedding
Letter to Gold Coast Family Pools
from Jacob Spedding's Parents.
06.01.2002
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