LITTLE Susanna Petersburska gives a huge smile to the groundbreaking doctor, who is poised to transform her life.

Susanna, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and her family have arrived in St Louis, Missouri for an operation, which is hoped, will help her walk unaided for the first time.

According to the Children’s Hospital in St Louis, Dr Tae Sung Park is the only neurosurgeon in the world to have refined the technique called selective dorsal rhizotomy, which involves cutting some of the sensory nerve fibres from the muscles to the spinal cord.

Five-year-old Susanna, from Eccleston (pictured on her first visit to see Dr Park), is expected to stay in the US for around five weeks.

Mum Monika and dad Andrzej say that Dr Park’s record of more than 2,000 operations using this procedure has left them confident of success.