Calgary family fundraising to buy life-changing medical device for 4-year-old daughter

Specialized medical equipment is expensive, and a Calgary family has set up a fundraiser to purchase a device to help their daughter walk.

A Calgary family has started a fundraising campaign to raise US$32,000 to purchase a Trexo robotic gait trainer for their four-year-old daughter, Aryah.

The adjustable device is a versatile tool designed to help children with disabilities experience the joy of walking.

Delijah Symonds says her daughter first tried the device when she was a toddler.

“The first time I put her in the Trexo at the Canadian Centre for Development two years ago, doing a therapy intensive, I saw how it just lit up her world,” Symonds said.

“Just to see her looking around and engaging with her environment in a way that she’s never been able to do before—there is no greater feeling, honestly.”

Aryah recently received a one-month free trial of the device to use at home and quickly fell in love with it.

“She cries the most awful tears getting out of the Trexo, which lets me know we need this,” Symonds said.

Aryah suffered a bilateral stroke at birth due to complications and now is faced with a number of challenges.

“She has spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, global developmental delay; she has a bit of cortical vision impairment; she’s g-tube dependent; she’s non-verbal and non-ambulatory but very happy,” Symonds said.

“She smiles every day. It’s so infectious, and that’s what keeps me going—knowing she can’t tell me, but I can see her joy.

“It lets me know and reassures me that we are doing everything that’s best for her.”

Erin Green, Aryah’s physical therapist at Renfrew Educational Services’ Janice McTighe Centre, says when the youngster is using the Trexo device, she’s benefiting from it.

“I’m working with Aryah on how she can access her environment,” Green said.

“When she’s able to interact with her peers and be upright at eye level with them, it just provides so many more opportunities for her to learn.

“When we can get kids upright, we are focusing on helping build their bone strength and their muscle strength, so with Aryah, it’s her core strength and her head control, and it’s really important for hearts and lungs for us to be upright as well.

“So, the Trexo is something that just provides her with a different opportunity than the equipment we currently have to allow those systems to really grow and see the benefit from things.”

Hazel Symonds, Aryah’s grandmother, says the Trexo is Aryah’s happy place.

She’s frustrated it costs so much.

“It costs more than a car,” she said.

“So, yeah, you’re thinking it’s this little device—you kind of just stick it on, and all of a sudden she can walk—but the price tag is so enormous.

“It’s true for most sophisticated medical equipment.”

She hopes the fundraising campaign succeeds.

“Aryah has her own little funky kind of crawl that she does, and that’s because she wants to go. … And when she’s in that Trexo, she can go and she can go and go and go,” she said.

“She just explodes with laughter. She giggles. She’s walking, and she’s giggling at the same time because she can’t believe (she’s walking).

“She loves that thing.”

You can learn more about the fundraiser at supportnow.org/aryah-rose-walking.