A seven-year-old boy nicknamed Charlie, from tiny Tanna Island in the Pacific, is recovering after surgery at John Hunter Children’s Hospital that will one day enable him to walk.
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Nurak Charley – called Charlie by everyone in Australia whose lives have been touched by his story – underwent a four-and-a-half hour operation at the hospital last Friday to correct a birth deformity, complex congenital talipes equino varus, commonly known as club feet.
Charlie and his mother Veronic were brought to Australia from Vanuatu through the fundraising efforts of East Maitland Rotary Club, and a humanitarian gesture by the hospital’s surgeons and medical staff who have donated their services to cover the cost of his corrective surgery and physiotherapy.
It was East Maitland Rotarian Brian Coffey who first spotted Charlie on a private visit to Vanuatu in November 2011.
A group of children were playing football. With his feet rotated inward at the ankles and unable to walk, Charlie was trying to crawl onto the field to join in the game.
Back home in Maitland, Mr Coffey enlisted the support of Lyn Thorpe, a member of the Adamstown-New Lambton Rotary Club, district chairperson of the Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) and, fortuitously, a surgical nurse at the hospital.
Without medical help, children born with talipes walk on their ankles or sides of their feet – if at all.
John Hunter Children’s Hospital paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Eric Ho, said Charlie’s club feet were partially treated when he was four by an Australian surgical outreach team on Vanuatu.
“Charlie’s condition requires complex staged surgical correction,” Dr Ho told the Mercury on Thursday.
His legs were prepared for surgery by placing them in plaster casts –
initially one green and one red, two of the colours on the Vanuatu national flag – which gently manipulated his tender bones closer to their correct position.
Then came last Friday’s surgery – on his left foot – with more operations scheduled for both feet, together with more plaster casts and more physiotherapy.
“To date everything has gone to plan, Charlie has had multidisciplinary team involvement throughout his time in Australia to ensure maximum benefits for his general health, as well as orthopaedic care,” Dr Ho said.
“Charlie now requires repeat cast changing, followed by review next week in the operating theatre and then in several weeks time he will require surgery bilaterally.
“The nature of Charlie’s condition will mean he requires immediate post-operative rehabilitative care in Australia and continuing care when he returns to Vanuatu,” he said.
Mr Coffey, who is also hosting Charlie and his mother, said their three-month visas may have to be extended to enable the completion of his treatment.
“He won’t be going home until his two feet are flat on the ground,” Mr Coffey said.
The initial pain Charlie suffered following the surgery was slowly being replaced with smiles, he said.
Charlie was scheduled to meet Australian Governor General and ROMAC patron Quentin Bryce, at Kirribilli House in Sydney last Friday, but their meeting was cancelled because of the surgery.
Charlie’s treatment was planned for eight months, during which time East Maitland Rotary Club raised more than $7000 for ROMAC and Charlie, the majority from a recital by internationally pianist Roger Woodward at Hunter Valley Grammar School last November.
