A 10-year-old girl from Belle Vale has had her life turned upside down after a limp turned out to be a sign of a serious hip condition. Ella Maguire started limping in June but initially thought it was nothing to worry about, possibly an injury from her majorette activities.
Ella, who loves being a majorette, had recently had a growth spurt and was not in any pain. It wasn't until a trip to a walk-in centre in early July that she and her family were told it could be something more serious.
Diagnosis and surgery
An MRI and x-ray revealed Ella had slipped upper femoral epiphysis (SUFE), a condition where the hip joint has slipped from the growth plate. If left untreated, it can lead to bone death and a child needing a full hip replacement. Symptoms include limping, as well as pain or reduced movement in the hip.
Ella needed to have an operation on both her hips. Her mum, Poppy Maguire, 31, told the ECHO: “The limp just wasn't getting any better, so I said to her, we should go to the walk-in centre, to put my mind at rest.”
Poppy said the nurse at the walk-in centre was brilliant and did some tests. She said: “He said, 'we'll get you a taxi to Alder Hey'. I said, 'I don’t want to go to Alder Hey because I didn't want to waste their time, with it not being something serious'. And he said, ‘no, this might be something serious. I don't want to rule it out.’”
Recovery and awareness
Ella has been in a wheelchair since July 8. Poppy said: “They said to me, if it would've been another two weeks, she would've ended up needing a full hip replacement. We don’t know when she’ll be able to walk again. But she's got her appointment on Thursday - that's the six-week mark - to see what happens next.”
Poppy said Ella has coped well, though she was very down at the hospital. She said: “At the beginning of the summer holiday, she was three-quarters of the way through her season for majorettes and now she can't attend the championships. We'd already booked hotels and everything, so that was a bit of a big blow, but the girls who she dances with and their trainers have been really supportive.”
Poppy decided to start a fundraiser to bring Christmas presents to the other children on her ward later in the year. The family also wants to raise awareness about SUFE. Poppy said: “Ella told me, at least I'll get better, ‘some of these kids might not. She just wanted to spread a bit of happiness back.”
“SUFE is not something that I'd ever heard of, no one I know had ever heard of it either. We dismissed it as ourselves. My daughter's even said she wants to spread awareness on it because people might just be thinking nothing of it. Then it's too late, and they end up having to have a hip replacement.”
