Meet some of our Brightest Stars
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Four year old Owen from Nowra, NSW, was born with a complex digestive tract disease called trachael oesophageal fistula. Within hours of his birth, Owen was flown by emergency helicopter to Sydney Children’s Hospital, NSW, for emergency surgery to reverse the incorrect placement of his oesophagus which was joined to his airway, making feeding and breathing a major problem.
The operation was a success. Owen’s frightened parents Vicky and Glen were relieved after three stressful days in the Intensive Care Unit, to have their tiny baby in their arms and recovering on the ward after the traumatic start to Owen’s life. |
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Gemma has had to regularly fight for her life in the Intensive Care Unit since she was just a little baby.
Gemma was diagnosed with a Teratoma tumor when she was just eight months old. She first developed gastro-intestinal bleeding (uncontrolled bleeding around her stomach and intestines) when she was one year old, and has since been hospitalised numerous times to stop it. |
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As a mother of two, Dana knew something wasn’t quite right with her third child, Zahli. She cried a lot, she wasn’t feeding right, and her nappy changes weren’t as they should’ve been.
At one month Zahli was diagnosed by doctors at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane with cystic fibrosis (CF). Her parents were devastated. They, like most other parents of children with CF, had no idea they were carriers and they had to come to terms with the fact that there is no cure. |
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Amy was the picture of health, both physically and mentally when she was first diagnosed. She had just started her first year at school, where she had made lots of exciting new friends. She was loving life living with her family in a small farming community about 15 minutes west of Casino in northern New South Wales.
Amy’s hospital journey began when she had an asthma attack. She didn’t respond to the treatment doctors gave to help her breathe, so she was sent for some blood tests. |
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One year old Charlee was born with multiple health conditions affecting her heart and airways. At only nine weeks of age she underwent her first operation on her heart. She continues to visit the Hospital regularly so doctors can monitor her complex condition.
“We often go back and forth from our home in Goulburn to the Hospital, and have spent about five months in total actually living at the Hospital”, said Charlee’s mother Jamey, who has never left her daughter’s side during her many hospital admissions. |
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It was just a few days before Diesel’s first birthday when, in the blink of an eye, he pulled a kettle full of boiling water off the kitchen bench and on top of himself. The boiling water scalded him all down the right side of his body and on his hands, ankles and feet.
Little Diesel was rushed to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane to receive specialist treatment for his serious burns. |
