Amazing Hartlepool youngster Talia Foster grows six inches after spinal surgery

Talia Foster, 13, had an operation known as spinal fusion to insert a metal rod and screws in her back and help correct the curvature in her spine.

It has straightened her body so much that she has grown an estimated six inches and also given her heart and lungs more space in her body.

Mum Clair described the wait for the surgery to be over, at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, as ‘tough emotionally and mentally’ but the difference to Talia’s life is going to be ‘huge’, she added.

“It will improve her quality of life and she will live longer because her organs are not being squashed any more.”

Courageous Talia had hundreds of seizures a day when she was first born and doctors told her mum Clair she may not survive infancy.

In the years that followed, she has tackled epilepsy, brain cysts and numerous chest problems.

Life has been tough for the youngster from the Brierton area.

After overcoming a string of problems in her early life, new conditions just kept on being diagnosed.

In the last few years alone, she has been:

* Registered blind with only six out of 60 vision in both eyes;

* Has been diagnosed with autism;

* Has been diagnosed with dystonia (which is a movement disorder where the muscles contract uncontrollably);

* Talia has also suffered bronchitis;

* Has a reduced immune system;

* Suffered an outbreak of hundreds of ulcers in her mouth.

On top of all that, she has also spent periods in hospital with pneumonia and even swine flu.

But she has fought back from it all and Clair said: “It proves how strong she is’.

She said the surgery, which was just over a week ago, had also ‘had a knock-on effect on her heart and lungs. Her heart was really small and it was getting squashed. You could not see her lungs before. Now her heart is massive.”

Talia was in hospital for six days and Clair added: “I can not believe the size of her. She looks so much older now.”

She will need both a new wheelchair and a new relaxing chair because of her sudden growth.

Talia, who is a student at the town’s Catcote Academy, is a fighter who never gives up. She was a winner of a Hartlepool Mail Child of Courage Award in 2013.

She is back home in Hartlepool after her operation and surrounded by balloons and cards from well wishers.

Clair, who is married to Brendan and also has two other children Callum and Gabrielle, previously told the Hartlepool Mail: “It was not a good outlook when she was born. They didn’t think she was going to live for long because she was having so many seizures. They thought she could have a heart attack or a stroke.

"They always say that one day you will meet your hero. I don’t need to look for a hero. Talia is mine.”

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