Maisie-Cate is lucky be alive after suffering a stroke - while she was still in the womb

Story by Claire Elliot

LITTLE Maisie-Cate Kerr is lucky be alive after suffering a stroke - while she was still in the womb.

The three-year-old’s parents, Rob and Tracey, were devastated when doctors told them what had happened - eight months after their daughter was born.

But the brave toddler, who was left with a cyst on her brain and paralysis down her right side, has defied doctors who said it would take her years to learn how to walk and talk.

Maisie-Cate, who has endured months of physiotherapy, is now scheduled to get Botox injections - more commonly used for cosmetic purposes - to further improve her condition.

The treatment works by relaxing the muscles in her leg, allowing intense physiotherapy to be done to stretch the muscles and tendons and make it easier for her to control her movement.

Mrs Kerr, 38, said: “Our fingers are crossed that it does help.

“But we are just the proudest parents ever to see how far she has come.

“When we were first told what had happened we were absolutely devastated. We just thought ‘this can’t be happening, a stroke and an embryo’. It was heartbreaking.

“But Maisie-Cate is such a determined little girl and to see her doing things like any other child now is just amazing. It brought a tear to my eye yesterday when she tried to jump for the first time.

“We are just so lucky to have her here,” she added.

Mrs Kerr, who is also mum to McCaullie, two, suffered a bleed in the early stages of her first pregnancy and was told by doctors she was suffering a miscarriage.

After the false alarm, however, routine scans failed to pick up any anomaly and when Maisie-Cate was born in April 2008 she appeared to be in perfect health.

It was only when she was three weeks old that her parents noticed she was unable to move her right arm and leg.

The health visitor dismissed it as being anything serious, telling the couple it might just be a bit slower or sore to move.

But after several visits to the doctor, an MRI scan that November confirmed Maisie-Cate had suffered a stoke in the womb, which had left her with a form of cerebral palsy called congenital right-sided hemiplegia.

Her devastated dad Rob, a 40-year-old police officer, said: “To be told your child has had a stroke before she was even born - it just killed us. We were totally shell-shocked.

“Never in our wildest imagination did we think it was anything like that. We had no idea that could even happen.

“We had all the scans done and there was no indication that there was anything wrong.

“It took us a long time to come to terms with it.”

By the age of 18 months Maisie-Cate was still unable to crawl and her speech was severely delayed. The only way she could get about was on her stomach.

But after two years at the Ladybird Development Playgroup, in nearby Lossiemouth, which provides one-to-one care for special needs infants, Maisie-Cate now attends a mainstream nursery.

The toddler, who has only been walking since March, still needs constant therapy to aid her movement and she can only walk short distances as she gets tired easily.

She is also unable to register pain on her right side as a result of the nerve damage caused by the stroke. Her parents, therefore, have to ensure her leg does not twist awkwardly and check from bruising if she falls.

But Mr Kerr said: “We don’t wrap her up in cotton wool. She is now becoming a typical child and that’s all we ever wanted her to be - to see her running around and fighting with her brother, playing with her toys and getting into trouble.

“We were told it would be a number of years before she could do that, if at all.

“But she is so determined and that’s helped bring her on and given her the ability to push through what we thought would take a lot longer to happen.

“We were expecting her to be going to primary school not walking or needing a Zimmer frame.

“But she constantly amazes us and although she is affected physically she is not affected mentally. She‘s a bright wee cookie.”

In the last six months, Maisie-Cate’s speech has also improved greatly with her parents now able to have conversations with her.

Her mum said: “She’s always been able to understand what we’ve been saying but finally we can understand what she’s saying as well.

“It’s fantastic, she can ask for things and speak in sentences. That’s a recent development.

“It is just amazing to see what she can do now. We are the proudest parents ever.”

Mr and Mrs Kerr believe that her daughter success is down to the dedicated staff at the Ladybird Development Playgroup.

Now to say thank you they are planning to walk 18-miles along the Speyside Way to raise funds for the group, which costs £60,000 a year to run.