Having Hope defied odds
Published: May 12, 2005
Glenda and Kevin Hickey’s Hope has been realized.
A few weeks ago, Glenda Hickey, who had a stroke five years ago that left her almost completely paralysed, gave birth to a healthy baby girl by caesarean section.
Weighing seven pound, four ounces at birth, baby Hope is thriving, cuddled and fussed over by her father Kevin and sisters Kaitlyn, 7, and Kennedy, 6.
“Baby Hope has come to us as a blessing,” Kevin Hickey, 35, said yesterday. “We’ve been so happy since she came. It has been nothing but glory for us, because everything else is so negative.”
Glenda Hickey suffers from a condition called locked-in syndrome. She can’t move her body, but she can see, hear, smell, touch and taste.
The 35-year-old woman communicates with her eyes and a finger through a special computer.
Experts have suggested Hickey’s birth may be a medical first.
While the baby has brought their household joy, the family is also under stress because of looming financial problems.
Money from a fundraiser held a few years ago to help pay for personal caregivers for Glenda Hickey has almost run out, her husband said. Alberta Health has refused to increase support payments the family receives.
The family is currently appealing that decision.
“We probably have another month and we are out of dough,” said Kevin Hickey, who has thyroid cancer.
“This puts an enormous pressure on the family’s outlook. You end up paying the labour bills out of my own paycheque and then we can’t pay the mortgage and we can’t pay the taxes and we can’t pay the heat bill.”
To help ease the burden, friends are organizing a walk-a-thon fundraiser for June 4 in the Hickey family’s hometown of Leduc, just south of Edmonton.
“If the fundraiser doesn’t go as planned then our other choice is to sell the home. We don’t want to go there.”
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