Maisie's fractured spinal vertebrae - Fitzpatrick Referrals

With no function from the waist down and her back legs no longer working, both Noel and Maisie’s family face a difficult ethical decision.

Even if her fractured spinal vertebrae are fixed, Maisie will need a hugely demanding level of care for the rest of her life, and there are currently no procedures, even in Noel’s wheelhouse, to reliably fix a broken spinal cord – for dogs or humans.

Noel discusses the ethical dilemma in detail with the family. They decide that they want to try to give Maisie a quality of life in spite of inevitable paralysis of her hind limbs. So, Noel and his team operate into the night to surgically stabilise her broken back, in the hope of getting her out of pain and giving her a chance to adapt to a new way of getting around.

It’s a bumpy journey, but there’s a chance Maisie could be back, running across the beach sooner than her family ever thought possible.