The Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal has always been important for Seville CFA family, Liz and Anthony Hudson.
Seeing first-hand the importance of the Hospital’s services for their daughter Lauren, the firefighters are passionate about the cause.
Lauren was three years old when a specialist picked up on hip dysplasia that had been missed at an earlier stage. After being assessed as a priority admission by a leading orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Lauren would end up requiring 20 surgeries during her childhood.
“Our daughter Lauren was slow to walk, and when she was about 18 months we went and had her fitted for shoes, and were told she was pronating a bit on her left leg. We were sent to a paediatrician, and he said she’d grow out of it. When she was about three years old, she had a bit of a limp. We were sent back to that same specialist, and he took x-rays and realised she had Congenital Hip Dysplasia,” Liz said.
“By this stage, her bones had grown all wrong. Her femur had grown outside the hip socket and was straight, and her hip socket had grown flat. We were sent straight to The Royal Children’s Hospital for an appointment. This was in late December, and Lauren had her first surgery in early January to reshape her hip socket and put her femur back into place.”
Following her initial surgery, Lauren was in a cast from the waist to her feet for four months. Every six weeks, she required general anaesthetic to replace the cast.
Now 24 years old, Lauren has required 20 surgeries in total. Inspired by the work of the nurses and doctors who have treated her for her entire life, Lauren now works as a nurse in an Intensive Care Unit.
“We were very lucky. If it had been picked up any later, it might have been too late to do anything,” said Liz.
“But seeing Lauren now, you’d never know what she’s gone through.”
Seville Fire Brigade will continue a long-standing tradition by fundraising for the Good Friday Appeal once again, rattling tins outside the local supermarket to gather donations.
Liz and Anthony were more than keen to help with the campaign.
“The Royal Children’s Hospital is so amazing in all they do, with the amount of people that go through there,” Liz said.
“When we were there, we thought our situation was awful, but when you go there and see other families you just realise how lucky you are and how lucky we are to have the treatment and facilities available to
us. Patients come from all over the world to have treatment with our doctors, so any way we can help them is just great.”
“The care we had was wonderful. The specialists were great and you could tell that they really were so passionate about their work.
“The Good Friday Appeal is so important to enable the hospital to stay at the world-class standard that it is, so I really encourage everyone to dig deep and get involved.
“We are indebted to Lauren’s specialist, his team and all the staff at The Royal Children’s Hospital for their exceptional care over Lauren’s childhood.”
