Surgery first for palsy girl

A FOUR-year-old Bundaberg girl is able to keep a special appointment after recovering successfully from a Queensland-first spinal surgery.

Krystal Hall is learning to walk properly after she became the first person to be operated on in Queensland by an Australian surgeon to ease symptoms of cerebral palsy.

She left Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital tonight with her parents who have planned a special way to celebrate her breakthrough.

"This has made all the difference. It's tears in the eyes stuff," her father Geoffery Hall said. "We (with partner Nicole) had been putting off getting married until she (Krystal) could walk down the aisle."

Surgeons at Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital took five hours to cut nerve rootlets in her spine that contributed to abnormal leg movement.

After 10 weeks of rehabilitation, Krystal – who was born with cerebral palsy – is now able to put her whole foot on the ground when she walks.

"Obviously she's learned the pattern of walking with that spasticity and now the focus has been re-training her to learn to walk again," Royal Children's Hospital paediatrician and rehabilitation specialist Dr Kim McLennan said.

After taking her first steps with the aid of a walking frame at the Royal Children's Hospital today, Krystal still faces at least another 12 months of intensive therapy to be able to walk properly.