A New Brunswick girl who lost parts of all four limbs after strep throat is now strong enough to leave a Halifax hospital.
Alyssa Sippley, 10, is moving on Monday to a rehabilitation facility in Fredericton, about 230 kilometres from her home in Baie-Sainte-Anne, N.B.
The girl spent five months at IWK Health Centre in Nova Scotia after a rare reaction to a streptococcal infection, which doctors said few people survive.
Yves Sippley, Alyssa’s father, says she’s counting the days until she can get to Fredericton so that she can spend some weekends at home.
“I know she misses her cats and her dog a lot,” he says.
As Alyssa heads closer to home, the community is still raising money for her recovery.
Nearly $120,000 has been collected on the website GoFundMe.com, and tens of thousands more has been raised at events, including a recent benefit concert in Moncton, N.B.
Yves says he’s thankful for the support.
“Definitely there will have to be a lot of changes made to our home with ramps and those kinds of things to make everything wheelchair accessible.”
Yves says his daughter is in good spirits. “It's amazing the way she's handled everything,” he says.
“We explained to her that she'll be getting prosthetics and she looks forward to it,” he adds. “She's not letting her get it down at all.”
