Karen Killilea, 80, Dies; Turned Disability Into Triumph

When Karen Killilea was born in 1940, she was three months premature and weighed less than two pounds. She spent her first nine months in a neonatal intensive care unit.

When she finally returned to the family home in Rye, N.Y., her parents noticed that her limbs were especially stiff, she never rolled over in her crib, and she didn’t reach for toys that were dangled in front of her. Babies born so early rarely survived in those days. The doctors told Karen’s parents to institutionalize her and get on with their lives.

That was the last thing that James and Marie Killilea (pronounced KILL-ill-ee) would do. Far from forgetting about Karen, they scoured the United States and Canada for medical specialists who could help her. They saw more than 20, all of whom said that Karen’s case was hopeless. One told them that in China, a child like Karen would be left on a mountaintop to die.

They finally found a doctor in Baltimore who recognized Karen’s intelligence, saw that she was aware of her surroundings and determined that she had cerebral palsy. With tireless dedication, her family spent at least two hours every day for the next 10 years helping Karen move her limbs back and forth, and eventually she triumphed over her prognosis.

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