Shannon Returns to Children’s Specialized 20 Years Later – As an Intern
Former Miracle Child Returns Home
No one has the answers to anything in life, and when the daughter of Bonnie and Shawn Kelly, of Bridgewater, N.J., was born eight weeks premature on July 2, 1991; their nearly five pound “sweetspea,” (as Shawn called her) was given a five percent chance of survival. From the moment she was born, her parents knew she was a fighter.
“Her middle name had to be Faith,” said Bonnie. “We just knew she was going to make it.”
And sure enough, she beat the odds.
But Shannon’s parents couldn’t help noticing their daughter wasn’t hitting her typical physical and developmental milestones (supporting her head, sitting up on her own, standing without assistance) tasks that other babies her age did with minimal effort. Concerned, they immediately took her to see Dr. Martin Diamond of Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside, New Jersey. Under his care, Shannon was diagnosed with a mild form of cerebral palsy (CP) at eighteen months old. Her condition was “most likely due to her thirty-two (instead of forty) week gestation,” said Diamond. Most of her history as a newborn into early infancy was seen as minor. “She had no documented brain bleeds, seizures or severe breathing problems,” Diamond explains. “We know however, that in about fifty percent of cases of clinically obvious CP, we can't point to a specific reason.” It has left her with tighter and in many cases, uncooperative leg muscles, a need to strengthen fine motor skills, and a lifelong challenge with perceptual difficulties, yet despite those roadblocks, she has never let her disability define who she is.
Shannon credits the love of her family, friends and constant support of Children’s Specialized Hospital for engraining that mentality into her mind, heart and spirit.
“I am a stronger, better person for my cerebral palsy. And even though it’s hard, I wouldn’t want it taken away,” said Shannon.
Under the Children Specialized Hospital’s umbrella of care, Shannon and her family have always received the utmost respect, highest quality of care and cutting edge treatment options. Shannon received a regimen of therapies at Children’s Specialized Hospital; physical and occupational therapy and many Saturday mornings of aquatic therapy to loosen her tight muscles.
On March 25, 1996, Shannon was the first patient of Children’s Specialized Hospital to receive botox injections to her hamstrings. When injected into specific muscles, the botox “binds to the nerves and lessens spasticity, and is also a treatment that can be used in both upper and lower extremities.” Dr. Diamond explained. Diamond recalls Shannon responding well to the treatment and therefore having the minor procedure repeated to her calf muscles on October 28 that year. “With each injection, she showed improvement walking straighter and much better overall,” Diamond said.
By the age of ten, Shannon was no longer receiving botox injections and instead, a more permanent treatment was decided for her. Her hamstring and Achilles tendons, the same muscles previously injected with Botox, were lengthened in surgery to give the same results as those injections did, while delivering more lasting results.
Now at almost twenty-two, her infectious smile hasn’t faded; along with her confidence and brimming ambition. After fourteen and a half years of strenuous physical therapy, the successful treatments of botox, and two surgeries her leg braces she thought she’d always wear, are long gone.
Shannon’s love of music; a listener and a singer; as well as a writer, are gifts and hobbies that have sustained her throughout her life. As a recent Cum Laude graduate from Ramapo College of New Jersey, she is looking forward to taking her degree in Communications back to the heart of it: as an intern for Children’s Specialized Hospital’s Marketing Department.
“It’s very surreal to be back here, to see things from a totally different perspective. When I see other kids wearing and walking in braces like I did, I think this used to be me, and in a lot of ways, still is.”