Girl, 11, paralysed from chest down by rare ‘1-in-a-million’ illness

Malika Mawhinney had just returned from school complaining her legs felt funny before she fell to the floor screaming in pain.

A “one in a million” condition has left a healthy 11-year-old girl paralysed from the chest down.

Malika Mawhinney, from Washington, near Sunderland in northern England, collapsed screaming in unbearable pain after coming home from school and was left unable to move.

Her mum Debbie rushed her to hospital and she was later diagnosed with transverse myelitis — a rare inflammatory disease causing injury to the spinal cord, The Sun reports.

The active girl has been left paralysed from the chest down and unable to do boxing or gymnastics, hobbies which she has been doing since she was three.

Malika told her mum she was suffering an unbearable pain in her back and a strange feeling in her legs when she got home on March 16.

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Malika Mawhinney, 11, has been left paralysed from the waist down. Picture: NCJ Media/australscope

“She came home from school one day complaining her legs felt funny then the next thing I knew she was rolling around the floor screaming in pain with her back,” Debbie explained.

“Then 10-15 minutes later she couldn’t feel a thing.”

Debbie called the doctor and took her daughter to Sunderland Royal Hospital before she was transferred to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Medics initially thought the pain might be down to stress, but after various tests and two MRI scans they found her spinal cord was inflamed.

Malika was then diagnosed with transverse myelitis and several surgeries were unsuccessful in trying to help her regain feeling beneath her chest.

Heartbreakingly, doctors have told Debbie any chance Malika will regain feeling in the future is “extremely slim”.

“They’ve done so many tests but they still have no idea what caused it,” the mum said.

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Malika was a very active little girl. Picture: NCJ Media/australscope

“We were told to actually get a child with it is less than a one in a million and it’s even rarer that they can’t find a cause.

“She can move her left arm and hand which is lucky because she’s left-handed. She can still move her right arm but she has no grip in her right hand.”

The mother-of-four said her daughter needs constant care so she has been training to be able to do everything she can for her at home.

The family are now waiting to move into a new home which can be adapted to meet Malika’s needs as they cannot adapt their current home.

Malika is remaining happy and bubbly. Picture: NCJ Media/australscope

‘WE ARE SHATTERED’

The mum said she has spent 90 per cent of her time sleeping on the sofa but her house is just not suitable.

“It’s a nice home, it’s a lovely area, it’s where we wanted to be. Thankfully we have a big living room so we’ve moved all the furniture into the shed,” Debbie said.

“We’ve had to put a curtain up just to separate the space up because she needs privacy.

“She can’t shower because we’ve got no downstairs bathroom so she’s having bed baths which isn’t ideal because she’s coming up to being a teenager.”

Despite her ordeal however, Debbie said Malika still remains a “bubbly and happy child” who can still “make me smile”.

But the diagnosis has “shattered the family” and Malika does have her rough days, even losing her hair due to stress.

“She’s coped amazingly well she has her up and down days. She was quite down about it at first and was losing her hair due to the stress,” the mother said.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family move into a disabled adapted home. Picture: GoFundMe

“She was in hospital through the whole of lockdown so she found it really hard not being able to go home to see her sister.

“She’s been doing gymnasts since she was three and loved boxing and running. She only recently joined the school’s football team.”

The mum has now set up a GoFundMe to raise some funds to help them move somewhere more suitable.

She said: “The amount of support we’ve had has just been amazing.

“We even had someone from New Zealand donate £50.”

So far the fundraiser has raised £1478 ($A2686) of their £3000 ($A5500) goal.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission