Paralysed woman grateful for cat's miraculous recovery

A woman paralysed from the waist down is appealing for help to pay for her beloved cat’s recovery from serious road accident injuries.

Vicky Kuhn, of Manor Road in Alton, is trying to raise £5,000 through GoFundMe for one-year-old Mollie’s vets bill.

Vicky, 44, credits Mollie and her other cats Millie, also one, and Moo, 14, for giving her a reason to carry on after an assault cost her the use of her legs.

She said: “Last year, at age 43, I sustained a very serious spinal cord injury. When the doctors finally realised just how serious, I was blue lighted via ambulance to the nearest specialist spinal unit for emergency surgery. When I woke up at the spinal unit in Southampton, I was not able to feel or move anything below the waist.

“I cannot overstate how much I love my cats. They kept me waking up in the morning when I felt I had nothing left to live for, and I have to be there for Mollie now, just like she was there for me.”

Five weeks ago Mollie escaped from Vicky’s house and collided with a car in Manor Road. Mollie was found hiding under a bush at Vicky’s home by her carer Zoe Steven, who went on to start the GoFundMe campaign.

Zoe said: “She was completely unable to move or walk. We rushed her straight to the emergency vets, where she had to be sedated for urgent X-rays. The initial emergency visit and X-rays cost £785, and the results brought heartbreaking news that Mollie had broken her pelvis.”

Speaking of Mollie’s “tenacity and sheer grit”, Vicky said: “From wherever on my usually very quiet road the incident happened, little Mollie managed to get herself to my front garden with two major breaks in her pelvis and a dislocated back leg, as well as lots of other injuries. Had she not, she would have died.”

Three days after the accident Mollie had surgery at Cedar Vets to screw her pelvis back together and change the shape of the ball joint of her leg. This was so it would not continue to dislocate, which had already happened since it was reset under general anaesthetic on the day she was found.

The £5,000 Vicky and Zoe are hoping to raise would cover the cost of the specialised orthopaedic surgery, anaesthesia, her animal hospital stay and post-operative pain relief.

The vets also suspected a spinal cord injury in Mollie’s case, but thankfully that had not occurred.

Vicky said: “Given Mollie has a pelvis that the vet had to screw back together and a hip that had been completely remodelled, her recovery has been astounding. She is nearly at the six-week turning point that she no longer has to be confined to a crate so she can heal.

“At her two-week check I saw the vet’s eyebrows shoot to his hairline as he saw little Mollie, who he had operated on himself only two weeks previously and who he had placed on the floor to check her gait, take off across the treatment room and settle under her mummy’s wheelchair.

“He had a peek at the tenacity that myself and all of her aunts and uncles, plus other friends who care deeply about Mollie, had witnessed when they visited with treats and toys during her recovery, even in the sparkling of her eyes when she was still barely able to move.

“I am very excited to be able to give her the opportunity to test out those legs after another four weeks’ healing. She will be so excited to join her sisters, who have been keeping a close eye on her in the crate on my bed so I could care for her on a practical level by myself and so she could be close to me.”

Mollie had already got through one traumatic experience before her accident, having been abandoned with Millie and two other kittens from their litter in a shopping bag outside a house. Vicky adopted Mollie and Millie through local cat rescue centre Hampshire Paws.

Vicky said of the fundraiser: “Times are so tough for everyone, and even with incredibly kind friends we haven’t surpassed £210. I am hoping that some kind people in the area may be able to help with donations and show that people in East Hampshire really are caring and kind.

“I know the nation’s love for disabled animals - particularly those whose tenacity pulled them through to a recovery that most people, the professionals included, could never have predicted.”

Zoe added: “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us save this sweet little kitten.”