A Northern Irish woman has been forced to make an impossible choice in order to keep her 11-year-old child alive.
Charlotte Caldwell gave birth to a seemingly healthy baby boy 11 years ago. But at four-months, baby Billy started showing signs of epilepsy.
Devastatingly, he began having up to 100 epileptic fits per day, and doctors had little hope for his recovery.
Given a life expectancy of six months, doctors suggested a high dose of morphine to help him slip away.
“Completely numb and devastated I took my wee Superhero home to die,” she wrote on the fundraising page set up for Billy.
But as she sat with her little fighter, Charlotte began researching if there was anything she could do to save her child.
In Chicago, America, she found a specialist who could help.
After arriving in Chicago and Billy being put on a Ketogenic diet, the seizures amazingly subsided.
For eight years, the family had breathing space. Until the condition returned with a vengeance.
“One seizure can take his wee life or leave him disabled again,” Catherine explained on the fundraising page.
But now she faces another, unthinkable, decision.
Their hopes for keeping Billy alive lies in a surgery offered in the US, that will render him unable to talk or have memories.
“It’s the lesser of two evils,” she told Cool FM. “If he doesn’t have it done, the inevitable, the unthinkable is going to happen to him.”
Catherine needs to raise $600,000 to get Billy the operation he needs, and you can view her fundraising page here.
