Balloons in my spine changed my life!

A MERSEYSIDE woman whose back was crushed in a go-karting accident can walk again after balloons were inserted into her spine.

Christine McFarlane spent three months doubled over in pain after she crashed on a track in north Wales during a family holiday.

She became the first person in Merseyside to have a medical procedure called kyphoplasty, labelled “botox for the back” by ageing Hollywood stars.

The treatment involves inserting balloons in the spine and blowing them up so cement can be injected into the cracks.

Before the procedure at Liverpool’s Walton centre at Fazakerley hospital, Ms McFarlane was in pain for three months and unable to stand up.

Three hours later, the keen dancer was on the road to recovery.

The 56-year-old, of Laxey Street, Toxteth, today said: “It is just amazing – a miracle. “I do not know about botox for the back. I am just glad to be on my feet.”

Ms McFarlane’s troubles started when she went go-karting with her grandson. She pulled in to end a lap but hit a bollard.

For several minutes, the grandmother-of-five was unable to move and struggled to tell people what was wrong.

She was taken to hospital, but doctors could not see any broken bones on her X-rays.

When the pain continued, she was referred to the Walton centre. Doctors discovered she had broken a bone in her spine, which had collapsed and fallen on to the next bone, causing agonising pain.

She was then told about kyphoplasty, a new procedure which Dr Kumar Das had studied in the USA.

Ms McFarlane said: “I was bent over and could not straighten up because of the pain for three months.

“I had to stop my part-time bar work and looking after my little grandson Joe, because I could not lift him up.

“I love dancing, salsa and jive in particular, but after the accident, I could not do anything.”

Ms McFarlane was operated on just before Christmas. She now looks after her grandson again and danced at a 50th birthday party recently.

She said: “Now I am back to normal, I am running like a loon, and when I go out, I dance my legs off.”

Doctors discovered Ms McFarlane was prone to fractures because she has osteoporosis, which she now takes medication for.

Kyphoplasty is used by Hollywood’s older actresses to rid themselves of an ageing stoop. The Walton centre only uses it to relieve pain.

The balloons shore up the affected bone and hold it in place while bone cement is injected.

The procedure takes less than an hour and is performed at only a handful of British hospitals.

Dr Das said: “Fractures of the spine used to be largely ignored, because there are few options. This procedure restores quality of life.”