LUKAS A RARE REASON TO GIVE
LITTLE Lukas Chatfield is literally one in a million.
The four- year- old Townsville boy has Hirschsprung’s disease and enterocolitis, which severely affect a person’s colon and large- intestine functions.
It is a condition that normally affects about one in 5000 babies, but the severity of Lukas’s case, which affects his colon, and small and large intestines, is as rare as one in every million people.
Lukas was born with a bowel obstruction and had his first surgery at just a week old.
It was the first of 14 operations he and his family have endured between then and June this year.
This time last year, Lukas’s family was told to prepare for the worst after a number of setbacks put his life on the line. But this Christmas he will be marking the milestone of almost six months without admission.
“He tells me he now wants to be a doctor so he can fix people,” mum Aimee Cantarella said. “He knows what’s going on with all the testing and probing and he’s getting better with needles.”
Lukas and his family are the face of this year’s Christmas appeal for Ronald McDonald House North Queensland, which will this week officially open its new family room.
The Bulletin was yesterday given an exclusive tour of the new “mini house”, built as part of the Townsville Hospital children’s ward redevelopment.
The existing Ronald McDonald House at Douglas will continue to accommodate people needing hospital treatment who live 50km or more from Townsville.
But the new space has been designed to cater specifically to Townsville families.
“To have this when we were here during the 14 operations or countless admissions would have been incredible,” Ms Cantarella said
“We live close by but it was still hard enough for us to be here, with his older brother, trying to juggle two kids … and parents and work and I really feel for people in these situations because it’s tough. When you’re here there are limited places to get comfortable and that feeling of home and just have a lay down, so here you feel miles away from it all.”
Ronald McDonald House Charities North Queensland CEO Amy Cooper said the family room, dubbed a “mini house”, had been in the works since 2009.
It’s the first of its kind for North Queensland.
“We’re really excited for Townsville families to now have access to the care that we’ve been giving at the ( North Queensland) house,” she said.
“Even though people might live close, the demands of having a sick child and needing to be with them 24- 7 bedside means it’s really hard to keep a family together and functioning.
“This space is special because people can do simple things like family dinner or watching TV that gives them a sense of normal.”
The house has been fitted out with donated furniture and appliances from local business but will require ongoing support for upkeep and more volunteers to man the space 24- 7.
To become a volunteer or to donate call 0475 755 545.