THE Royal Children’s Hospital has done a lot for Henry Hewitt in his short life.
The Hoppers Crossing three-year-old spent the first nine months of his life at the hospital after being born 12 weeks premature.
Almost immediately after his birth, Henry was struck by a potentially fatal stomach bug and was given a breathing tube.
At 10 weeks old, with his right lung inflated and pushing on his other lung and heart, surgeons performed an upper lobectomy. It was the first time surgeons had performed the operation on a baby his size. Henry was too unstable to be moved to the operating theatre, so the surgery was performed in the ward.
It was followed by operations to remove hernias around his groin, for a fundoplication – to stop him from refluxing into his lungs – and a gastrostomy, where surgeons created an opening into the stomach and inserted a feeding tube.
Henry went home for the first time at seven months old. But after six days, he was rushed back to the hospital because of pulmonary hypertension. He finally got to go home for good at nine months old.
Mum Loren says she is indebted to the hospital’s staff and is urging Wyndham residents to support this year’s Good Friday Appeal.
“Without them he wouldn’t be here today. We wouldn’t have a son who is 3? years old.
“Looking at Henry you wouldn’t know that he was any different from other kids. You wouldn’t know he had a rough start to his life,” she says.
Henry is still a regular visitor to the hospital, stopping by monthly for check-ups or to collect medication.
He is still fed via his feeding tube, although he is learning to eat.
“He is doing brilliantly. He is catching up with all the milestones. At nine months he was the development age of a newborn. He couldn’t hold the weight of his head, let alone sit up or crawl. Now he does gymboree and playgroup. He is just a well-rounded little boy,” Ms Hewitt says.
Donations: 92921166 or Good Friday Appeal.
