Dawesville girl Amber Field is only four years old, but already she has undergone heart surgery six times.
Next week, she will fly to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital with her family for her seventh operation, but not before donning her Wonder Woman cape and leotard on Wednesday to talk about her condition at her school, Saint Damien’s Catholic Primary School, and promote HeartKids’ fundraiser, ‘Super Boss Day’.
Amber has a congenital heart defect, and her surgeries are expected to increase her life expectancy from her teen years into her 30’s.
Amber’s mum Kirstin said although their family has been through it so many times, it never gets any easier.
“We’re nervous, always nervous... she’s had all these different stages of operations from birth, and each one presents us with different challenges, but we just stay positive and optimistic, that she’s in great hands,” Ms Field said.
“The medical teams here and in Melbourne are just amazing, they’re our superheros… Our little ones wouldn’t be here without them.”
While they try to keep a brave face, such a major health challenge in very young children places emotional and financial stress on affected families, which is where the national charity HeartKids comes in.
Amber is hoping that on May 26, the other students at school will join her in dressing up as super heroes to raise money for the charity, and foster a better understanding of congenital heart diseases in the community.
“HeartKids are a great support to families in the hospital and outside,” Ms Field said.
“They’ll come and do visits to families and help out with the kids, or provide food, or things we all forget to do when we’re going through surgery.”
Heart defects in children are surprisingly common, with almost 3,000 babies with heart defects born in Australia every year.
At St Damien’s Catholic Primary School alone, there are three families affected.
Year 2 student Max Hardy and his parents Kim and Matthew have not had to travel for surgery, though Max’s operations have been a harrowing experience in themselves.
“In our 20 week scan Max was found to have a condition called Tetralogy of Fallot, which is quite a complex condition where they’ve got four things wrong with their heart,” Mr Hardy said.
“At three months old, he was operated on, it was life-saving surgery, he wouldn’t have lasted beyond that… he’s actually one of the successful stories of the operation, he’s doing very well.”
Another St Damien’s mother Monique Earl’s youngest son Nate, now two years old, had to be born at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital, and greatly benefited from HeartKids’ support during that time.
“We found out at our 20 week anatomy scan that he had a heart defect, so I had to go to Melbourne to have him because his surgery wasn’t done here,” she said.
“A lot of the surgeries don’t get done here, they have to fly to Melbourne, so then HeartKids will give things like vouchers for parents to get meals at the hospital because you don’t want to leave their bedside.”
The families hoped to launch the HeartKids Day at St Damien’s before Amber had to head off for her surgery, to give her a chance to show her peers what a super hero she is.
“We thought because we’ve got three HeartKid families at one school, affecting siblings and all that as well, we’d get the kids involved, so all the kids can dress up for a gold coin donation as a superhero,” Ms Field said.
All funds raised by St Damien’s on the day – May 26 – will go to the HeartKids foundation so they can continue to support children like Amber, Max and Nate, and their families.
For more information about HeartKids, visit heartkids.org.au
