When little Arabella Green came into the world, doctors noticed right away something wasn’t right. She was diagnosed with a rare condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. It caused her tiny joints to lock into place, some bent and some stiffened straight.
By the time she was five years old, Ella as her family affectionately calls her, had already endured more painful surgeries than most adults could imagine. Yet even after all of that, she still couldn’t walk. Instead, her days were spent moving around in a wheelchair, something she never grew comfortable with.
“She can feel everything, her mind works perfectly,” her dad William explained. “But she hates that chair. She doesn’t like people staring at her. She just wants to walk like other kids.”
William and his wife, Catherine, refused to accept that nothing more could be done. They searched endlessly for a doctor who might offer their daughter a chance, but each appointment ended the same: Ella, they were told, would spend her whole life in a wheelchair.
Then Catherine reached out to an American specialist, Dr. David Feldman, who ran a clinic in Poland. For the first time, they heard hopeful words, with the right surgery and rehabilitation, Ella might actually be able to walk.
That small light of hope was quickly dimmed when they got back to Scotland, only to be told again that she wasn’t suitable for surgery. Catherine, already struggling with her mental health, was crushed by the news. William recalls painfully, “She was begging doctors just to straighten Ella’s leg. Two months later, she took her own life. It was March 16. She couldn’t bear watching her daughter suffer anymore.”
Despite losing his wife, William refused to give up. He poured his grief into action, setting up a fundraiser to cover the $170,000 cost of surgery in Poland. “I’m her dad, I’m a fighter, and my daughter’s a fighter,” he wrote. “I believe in Dr. Feldman. I won’t stop until she gets this chance.”
When Dr. Feldman learned what William was doing, he stepped in himself, lowering the price by $100,000. “It’s easier to hand someone a wheelchair and say there’s nothing to be done,” Feldman said, “but that’s not fair to a child with so much potential. I’ve seen the results with my own eyes. Ella deserves that chance.”
In October 2021, thanks to donations and the team in Poland, Ella’s journey began. She first went through 12 long weeks of physiotherapy and strength-building exercises. Nurses helped her retrain her muscles, slowly preparing her body to stand. Then, finally, she had the surgery her parents had dreamed of for years.
The outcome was nothing short of incredible, Ella took her very first steps.
