Ruth Bateup, a 58-year-old assistant librarian from East Peckham, Kent, woke up from a routine decompression operation in April to find herself unable to move her legs. The surgery, intended to relieve excruciating back pain caused by cauda equina syndrome, resulted in a rare complication: functional neurological disorder (FND), which doctors say caused her brain to 'forget she had legs.'
Diagnosis and Surgery
Bateup was diagnosed with cauda equina syndrome—a condition where nerves at the base of the spine are compressed—after a car accident 13 years ago. Despite injections and treatments, the pain persisted. In December last year, a back surgeon informed her that her nerves were less than a 'breadcrumb' away from being squashed. She underwent a decompression operation at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, London, in April.
A Life-Changing Outcome
Upon waking, Bateup discovered she could not move her legs. Doctors diagnosed her with FND, a condition where the brain struggles to send and receive signals properly. 'I am now paraplegic—something I never thought I would say. I am absolutely heartbroken,' Bateup said. 'The hardest thing for me is that I am not going to be able to give my mum a hug standing up again. That hurts.'
Bateup remains at the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre, where she undergoes physiotherapy and rehabilitation. She is expected to stay for several more weeks, having initially packed only two pairs of pyjamas for what she thought would be a few days in hospital. The ordeal has now lasted 13 weeks.
Uncertain Future
Bateup says she is unsure whether she will ever walk again. 'Every surgery carries risks. They are saying it is the mechanism that has gone wrong in my brain. It has forgotten that I have legs. They can’t promise me it will come back, but they also can’t promise me it won’t,' she said. Despite the outcome, she had no choice but to undergo the surgery; without it, she would have lost bowel control as well as leg function.
Financial Struggles
As Bateup prepares to return home, her concerns have shifted to finances. Her house, where she lives alone, is not adapted for her new reality. She needs a lightweight wheelchair costing £10,000 and a wet room costing £12,000. Additionally, she requires a lift—currently shuffling up stairs on her backside—and a low-level kitchen to cook again. Her friend Tony Dowdeswell started a GoFundMe page, which has raised over £700 so far.
'I am going home soon and simply don’t have the funds. I need a wet room and a lightweight wheelchair to keep my independence. I want to be able to go back to work and have some sort of normal. I am asking for help to give me some independence back,' Bateup said. 'I feel I have lost the person I am and the home I loved.'
Never Giving Up Hope
Looking ahead, Bateup refuses to accept her condition as permanent. 'I will never give up fighting. I am not sure that I will ever be able to do it, but I simply have to try. If you accept the chair then it is going to be forever, and I am not going to accept the chair. All I can think is that at the moment I am unable to walk,' she added.
