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But she knows exactly what she wants.

Photo by Ashley Fraser / Postmedia

“I want to walk,” she says. “I want to play with my sister (eight-month-old Leandra), and I want to help … to help …”

(Here followed a gut-wrenchingly long pause while her brain, busy organizing the next part, was simultaneously challenged by the Pixel Gun 3D game on her iPad in front of her.)

“I want to help clean the house.”

Help could be on the way. Lamitta’s parents learned two weeks ago that, after looking at all her medical records, Dr. T.S. Park, a specialist in pediatric neurosurgery, believes Lamitta is a good candidate for selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery. It’s a procedure he’s successfully performed thousands of times, and Park has agreed to perform it on her.

Following the operation, in which the sensory nerve fibres that cause spasticity are cut from her spinal cord, Park says that Lamitta’s spasticity will be reduced and her sitting and standing postures, along with her balance and comfort level, will improve. Additionally, her ability to walk using a gait trainer — essentially a walker that supports her weight — will improve. “There is a small chance she will be able to walk using a walker and her upper extremities may improve,” Park adds.

The catch is that Park works out of the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, in Missouri. The procedure isn’t performed in Ontario, and while OHIP claims to cover the procedure, it only does so if the application is accompanied by a letter from a specialist, something that numerous families in Ontario have said they can’t get.