Help improve the hospital experience and outcomes for sick kids like Patrick.
Every year, thousands of sick kids come through the doors of the Children’s Hospital Queensland – kids just like Patrick.
Patrick was born with life-threatening bone and joint conditions arthrogryposis, scoliosis and kyphosis. Now six-year-old Patrick has spent huge chunks of his life in hospital. Much of it in a full body cast.
It has been a long journey – both in time and distance with the travel from his home in the NT – but Patrick is a happy, thriving child who looks forward to his ongoing hospital visits. All thanks to people like you.
Will you please donate now to help improve the hospital experiences and outcomes for more sick kids like Patrick?
Your support will help fund the “secret ingredient” in the Queensland Children’s Hospital’s world class care. You make the extra services possible – like our Kidzone playroom, Scholastic Book Bunker or the Family Resource Centre. That helps reduce the stress and anxiety of a child’s stay at the hospital, and in turn improves their outcomes.
Don’t let sick kids like Patrick miss out on learning, playing and the joys of being a kid just because they are in hospital. Please give generously so these services are there for sick kids to enjoy now and for years to come.
Thank you for your kindness and for making sick kids like Patrick smile.
Patrick’s story
How support far from home made a difference.
Relocating to give Patrick the care he needed
Patrick was born with multiple joint deformities and has undergone plaster casting of his torso and legs and faced ongoing surgeries since birth.
It has been extra tough for his family who are from Katherine in the Northern Territory. Not only have the family had to cope with Patrick’s medical needs, but they have also had to relocate twice for him to receive the treatment he needs at Queensland Children’s Hospital.
Almost two years away from family and friends
In 2021, his family temporarily relocated to Brisbane for the second time to enable Patrick to undergo further spinal procedures.His upper body torso plaster was removed and replaced with a halo gravity traction. This was a big moment for Patrick as he could experience a bath and go swimming for the first time since he was six months old.
It’s hard to convey the amount of treatment Patrick has had. In 2021 alone, he had four operations, over thirty-one visits to hospital and over 130 physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions. All this, away from his two siblings and extended family interstate.
Support far from home
Being so far from home for such significant periods of time presented a range of challenges for his family, however they leaned on the Children’s Hospital Foundation team for support. This included frequent visits to the Foundation’s playroom Kidzone. The Family Resource Centre was also Patrick’s dad, Patrick Senior’s, sanctuary. Using the computers enabled him to continue working full-time remotely for the last two years continuously and for the past five years intermittently. He would spend hours, days and nights in the Family Resource Centre and would not have gotten by without it.
Patrick shows incredible resilience and continues to reach significant milestones, including learning to walk. He has more surgeries and hospital visits in his future, but the Children’s Hospital Foundation and our supporters will be with him every step of the way.
All of the services change lives. Truly. We can see it; we’ve experienced it and we’ve lived the benefits of it. And that’s why we’re so grateful because it makes Patrick’s hospital experience so much more comfortable. He’s not focused on the treatments, operations, or the pain he’ll be in. Instead, he’s excited for all the things he gets to see and do, and it makes such a big difference.”
Patrick’s dad
The difference that shapes their world
You can help improve the hospital experience and outcomes for sick kids like Patrick.
