JOHN CHAMBLISS/THE LEDGER Morgan Kelly is flanked by her cousin Ashley Robinson, left, and mother, Angela Floyd, at home in Lakeland. Morgan, who turned 7 on Sunday, suffers from a degenerative neuromuscular disease that has hospitalized her at least 10 times this year.
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LAKELAND
Morgan Kelly sounded like a normal, healthy 7-year-old girl at her birthday party Sunday. Clad in a pink, flowered dress and hat, Morgan's green eyes lit up when asked what she wanted for her birthday.
"I want Barbie dolls," she said. "And some books."
Morgan's outgoing personality conceals her battle with spinal muscular atrophy, a neuromuscular disease.
Using a stroller -- and later, a wheelchair -- since she was 15 months old, the Medulla Elementary first-grader has been in and out of the hospital at least 10 times this year. She usually stays in the hospital from three days to two weeks.
Her muscles continue to deteriorate. "She gets a cold and she doesn't have the strength to cough," said her mother, Angela Floyd.
Doctors have told Floyd that Morgan might not make it to her teens.
"It could take a turn for the worse at any time," Floyd said. "There's just no cure."
Morgan was born with type II spinal muscular atrophy. Type I is the most debilitating form. Those with type I rarely live beyond their third birthday.
Because of the financial strain on the family, Floyd and her husband, Dennis, are receiving help from Newspaper with a Heart, The Ledger's fund-raising campaign that for 36 years has helped people who fall on hard times because of illness, injury or job loss.
For Floyd, 30, Morgan's condition has forced her to miss numerous days from her job at Mid-Florida Federal Credit Union.
"Last year I missed 60 days of work," Floyd said. "This year I've missed so much.
"I just can't leave her in the hospital. I can't function knowing she's there."
Her husband's job at Buttercrust Bakery provides the family's only steady income, and the family has gotten behind on mortgage and car payments.
Medicaid covers much of the expenses for Morgan's care, but the family still sees high bills from some of the hospital visits.
In addition to Morgan, the couple have two other children, Stephan, 11, and Elizabeth, 5.
Caring for Morgan is timeconsuming.
Either Floyd or her husband wake up six times during the night to turn Morgan so she won't choke.
Each morning, Floyd awakens at 6 a.m. and lifts the 50-pound girl out of bed. She takes her to the bathroom, brushes her teeth and changes her clothes.
Morgan's condition went undetected for her first 15 months.
Doctors at first thought that she was just growing slowly, Floyd said. But a doctor knew something was wrong when he checked her knee reflexes and didn't get a response.
"She used to ask, `Why don't my legs work?' " Floyd said. "She wants to know why this is a terminal disease."
Floyd said she has a picture of Morgan standing when she was 15 months old.
It was so long ago that Floyd has trouble remembering that day.
On Sunday, the family was upbeat about Morgan's birthday.
The little girl was surrounded by relatives, including her grandparents, who live across the street.
Dennis Floyd cooked burgers on a grill as relatives approached Morgan's wheelchair and bent down to wish her happy birthday.
Morgan smiled. She has missed many days from school but continues to make good grades. She reads on a fourthgrade level.
"She has accepted her situation," her mother said. "She is a strong kid."
