Latest / The Front / The spine surgery that changed 12-year-old Oscar’s life

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The spine surgery that changed 12-year-old Oscar’s life · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday May two, twenty twenty six. Penny Wong says
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  Speaker 1: Australia's job will never be done pushing back on Chinese
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  Speaker 1: influence in the Pacific. The Foreign Minister says Australia's willing
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  Speaker 1: to boost security ties with the Solomon Islands. Now they've
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  Speaker 1: elected a new Prime minister who's skeptical about China. A
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  Speaker 1: beautiful story today about.
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  Speaker 2: Courage and love, a young boy with a powerful will
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  Speaker 2: to live, a mother's devotion, and the doctors and nurses
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  Speaker 2: in our public hospitals who make magic happen every single day.
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  Speaker 1: Stay with us today on The Australian, there's the most
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  Speaker 1: beautiful video of a twelve year old boy standing up
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  Speaker 1: from his wheelchair. His name's Oscar Tanna and joining me
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  Speaker 1: is our associate editor Helen Trinker, who's been following Oscar's story.
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  Speaker 1: Helen tell Us, who is Oscar Tanner.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Oscar Tanner is a twelve year old boy. He
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  Speaker 3: lives on the central coast of New South Wales. We
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  Speaker 3: came upon him because we're doing series on surgeons and
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  Speaker 3: surgery Oscar has cerebral palsy. He had a extreme curvature
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  Speaker 3: of the spine. So the spine specialists who were talking
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  Speaker 3: to did this operation on him, and we had tremendous access,
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  Speaker 3: so gave us permission. The family and the surgeons gave
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  Speaker 3: us permission to view the operation. And it's been a
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  Speaker 3: wonderful story, perfect, perfect thing and beauty.
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  Speaker 1: There are four wonderful characters in this story. Oscar Tanner,
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  Speaker 1: his mother Janet Tanner, and two surgeons, Angus Gray and
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  Speaker 1: Patrick Limb. Let's get to them each in turn. Starting
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  Speaker 1: with Oscar. He's twelve years old, as you said, but
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  Speaker 1: he only weighs about twenty five kilos. That is about
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  Speaker 1: half what a normal twelve year old would weigh. Tell
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  Speaker 1: me how Oscar came to have cerebral palsy, in what
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  Speaker 1: his life's journey has been like.
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  Speaker 3: Oscar's biological mother had a virus CMV virus, which is
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  Speaker 3: not uncommon and often it doesn't do any harm. But
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  Speaker 3: because she was pregnant, and because sometimes fetuses are affected,
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  Speaker 3: and so he was born and it was realized a
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  Speaker 3: little later that he had cerebral palsy. His disability, I
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  Speaker 3: suppose was made worse by the fact that he developed
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  Speaker 3: very severe epilepsy. So about fifteen months Oscar's biological mother
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  Speaker 3: riched out for help. She had another child, and she
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  Speaker 3: was pregnant with her third child, and so that's when
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  Speaker 3: Oscar's adoptive parents came into play. And that's Janet, who
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  Speaker 3: is just Janet Tanna, who's wonderful person really and as
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  Speaker 3: her wife, Ali died a couple of years ago, which
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  Speaker 3: is again a very sad part of this story. But
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  Speaker 3: Janet and Alie loved this little boy from the minute
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  Speaker 3: they fostered him. They had decided that they wouldn't have
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  Speaker 3: their own children, and they had fostered other little children before,
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  Speaker 3: but when Oscar came along, I think it was kind
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  Speaker 3: of love at first sight, and eventually they adopted him.
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  Speaker 3: He was eight. Sadly, two years after that, Ali died
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  Speaker 3: from colon cancer, so Janet was a single mother, but
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  Speaker 3: she is quite amazing.
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  Speaker 4: Just because his body doesn't work like ours, it doesn't
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  Speaker 4: mean his mind doesn't. So I made sure that as
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  Speaker 4: much as he can, he's part of everything that happens
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  Speaker 4: to him.
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  Speaker 3: This is a story that's quite common across Australia. There
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  Speaker 3: are many many wonderful people dealing and growing rearing children
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  Speaker 3: who have got quite severe needs. And Janet does have help.
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  Speaker 3: She has an NDIS package, so she has a care
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  Speaker 3: in the morning and in the evening, but a lot
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  Speaker 3: of the time she's on her own. And she's just wonderful.
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  Speaker 3: And when I asked her how, she said, well, you
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  Speaker 3: just do. She said it sucked when how when Ali died?
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  Speaker 3: Obviously understanding, yes, that's right, but she said, you just
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  Speaker 3: keep going, because you do. But she keeps going in
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  Speaker 3: an amazing way. She's got tremendous communication with Oscar sadly
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  Speaker 3: is nonverbal, and that's I think an effect that originally
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  Speaker 3: he did have some words, but the epilepsy really set
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  Speaker 3: him back again. So he has got very strong needs.
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  Speaker 1: She clearly believes that he is taking everything in and
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  Speaker 1: is feeling things very deeply. And they seem to have
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful connection.
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  Speaker 2: Don't they.
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  Speaker 3: It is an amazing connection. And look, I think she's right.
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  Speaker 3: I think he is all there. He blinks, that's really
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  Speaker 3: the only way. But also as well as that, I
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  Speaker 3: think he's got facial expression. She is so close to him,
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  Speaker 3: so she'll ask him questions that require a year so
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  Speaker 3: or no answer, and he'll blink. But much more than that,
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  Speaker 3: I think she can sense his needs. You know, he
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  Speaker 3: watches quite a lot of TV and a lot of
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  Speaker 3: old movies, you know, and things like that, and she
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  Speaker 3: can sort of sense when he's happy. I am unhappy.
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  Speaker 3: He's terribly happy about the oberration. I'm convinced of that
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  Speaker 3: myself too, having met them a few times, because he
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  Speaker 3: was in a lot of pain beforehand, because he had
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  Speaker 3: a very severe curvature of the spine. That curve has
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  Speaker 3: now been straight, and we're not completely straight, but it
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  Speaker 3: means that he can lie straight in bed, he can
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  Speaker 3: sit up straight in his wheelchair, and as you said
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  Speaker 3: at the beginning, Claire, he was able for the first
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  Speaker 3: time in a year with the help of his wheelchair,
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  Speaker 3: which is a seek to stand in a wheelchair, to
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  Speaker 3: stand up for a few minutes, and that would increase.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Oscartana standing out for his first time with his
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  Speaker 4: brand new legs and he's brand new back.
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  Speaker 3: And that sort of sense of freedom that little twelve
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  Speaker 3: year old boy gets from being upright, I think it
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  Speaker 3: is amazing.
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  Speaker 1: One of the surgeons he spoke to, he spoke very
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  Speaker 1: movingly about assessing children who have cerebral palsy for this
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  Speaker 1: kind of surgery, that for some of them it's the
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  Speaker 1: right thing to do and for others it's not. It's
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  Speaker 1: gone pretty smoothly.
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  Speaker 3: I mean he's skinny as it bled much as I
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  Speaker 3: missed Behinved.
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  Speaker 4: So it's been a pretty stand.
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  Speaker 1: A day grimed. Oscar is the perfect candidate. But it
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  Speaker 1: is a harrowing and long surgery. Can you tell us
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  Speaker 1: just in simple terms, what's happening in this surgery?
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  Speaker 3: So the surgeon wy referred to as Angus Gray, and
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  Speaker 3: he and Patrick Limb are co surgeons. They operate every
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  Speaker 3: Friday together and they do a lot of work together.
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  Speaker 3: But Angus was I suppose the lead person on this.
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  Speaker 3: So a lot of people with scoliosis, which is really
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  Speaker 3: a version of this which Oscar has. He has a
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  Speaker 3: twisted spine. Many children who don't have Oscar's difficulties have
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  Speaker 3: an operation that actually takes about eight hours. It's longer operation,
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  Speaker 3: and they fuse a lower spine and they put in
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  Speaker 3: boats to sort of straighten the spine. In Oscar's case,
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  Speaker 3: because he's quite frey on and he could not withstand
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  Speaker 3: an eight hour operation. This operation took about three and
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  Speaker 3: a half hours. And what it is is there is
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  Speaker 3: bots inserted in the pelvic area and then hooks at
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  Speaker 3: the upper spine and then effectively a series of rods
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  Speaker 3: are put down each side and it's joined up. And
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  Speaker 3: what that does is that sort of forces the spine
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  Speaker 3: to straighten. Effectively, it straightens. It's so immediately almost Angus
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  Speaker 3: could see when the operation we're still in the theater
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  Speaker 3: that the spine is swung into a better position. It's
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  Speaker 3: gone from one hundred and twenty eight degrees off center
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  Speaker 3: effectively to forty five degrees I've center. Now that is
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  Speaker 3: a good outcome. Angus Gray told me the other day
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  Speaker 3: that that's better than they expected. You know, a few
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  Speaker 3: years ago, as Patrick Mihm said to me, Oscar wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: have been able to have any relief in a way
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  Speaker 3: from the pain.
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  Speaker 5: We have said this, I'm sorry, but there's nothing else
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  Speaker 5: we can do for you. And they just progressively get worse.
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  Speaker 5: And so now we can do an operation where they
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  Speaker 5: lose a lot less blood. We can do a corrective
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  Speaker 5: operation and get good outcome.
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  Speaker 3: See, the curvature of oscar spine was worsening a couple
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  Speaker 3: of years ago he could stand up, not straight, but
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  Speaker 3: a lot straight. And when he stood up, but it
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  Speaker 3: got worse and worse. And what this operation attempts to
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  Speaker 3: do is to stop any worstening and to try to
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  Speaker 3: make it better. And that's succeeded in this case.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up the Village of extraordinary people inside the operating room.
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  Speaker 1: I loved reading about Angers describing why he'd become a
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  Speaker 1: final surgeon. You know, he had the normal path that
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  Speaker 1: doctors have, exploring what they want to do with their careers.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, you often hear surgeons say this too,
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  Speaker 1: that they want to do something practical, why this kind
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  Speaker 1: of surgery?
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  Speaker 3: For one of the great aims of this series we're
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  Speaker 3: trying to do is to try to really understand what
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  Speaker 3: motivates surgeons and what it's like, because most of us think,
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  Speaker 3: oh my god, how can you do it. Anger says
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  Speaker 3: that he decided to be an orthopedic surgeon and specialized
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  Speaker 3: eventually in spine because he he said, there are two
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  Speaker 3: tribes of people. There are the surgeons that are the
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  Speaker 3: non surgeons, and the surgeons liked working on practical stuff.
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  Speaker 3: They want outcomes. He said, it's great to be able
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  Speaker 3: to analyze a patient, decide whether or not surgery can help,
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  Speaker 3: decide what the plan is, and then do it. And then,
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  Speaker 3: as he said, it's a good day's work. Kids aren't miserable,
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  Speaker 3: they don't do self pity. They just want to get
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  Speaker 3: better now. He said. Sometimes that process can take weeks, months, years,
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  Speaker 3: it's not immediate, but it's what surgeons like to do.
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  Speaker 3: And he also, I think he likes the operating theater too.
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  Speaker 3: He said it was quite a flat hierarchy in the theater,
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  Speaker 3: and you can see that because they work as a team,
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  Speaker 3: the scrub nurse, the anthesist, the scout nurses, everybody else. Says,
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  Speaker 3: it's quite an equal feeling, and Angus and Patrick go
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  Speaker 3: out of their way to sort of acknowledge the role
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  Speaker 3: of the whole team, and it is really team weeks.
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  Speaker 3: So he loves that, and I think he loves being
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  Speaker 3: able to work with a team. And he said something
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  Speaker 3: beautifully said, we're all sort of on the same wavelength.
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  Speaker 4: We're very stable, we get on very very well. Everyone's
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  Speaker 4: on the same frequency.
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  Speaker 6: So it's a great thing to come to work and
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  Speaker 6: work with those people.
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  Speaker 3: Most of us that's what we want with our own jobs,
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  Speaker 3: you know, to be able to enjoy that.
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  Speaker 1: Just finally, one of the things that really moved me
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  Speaker 1: about your story was Janet the mother, describing bringing a
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  Speaker 1: priest into bless Oscar before the surgery. And you wrote
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  Speaker 1: in the story that Janet is not Catholic, but Oscar
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  Speaker 1: is that level of respect that she has for this
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  Speaker 1: nonverbal child who maybe in another society or in generations past,
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  Speaker 1: for most of human history, would have been regarded as
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  Speaker 1: someone who wasn't really worth bothering with. She has this
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  Speaker 1: amazing respect for him, doesn't she.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's a wonderful thing to recognize. Claire. Even
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  Speaker 3: the other day I was on the phone to her
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  Speaker 3: and I said, did Oscar enjoy standing up? And I said, oh,
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  Speaker 3: can I talk to you about it? She immediately calls
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  Speaker 3: out Joshcoa said, is it okay, Oscar? If I talked
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  Speaker 3: to Helen about the story, you know, like, that's incredible
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  Speaker 3: to me. She was getting his permission at every point she,
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  Speaker 3: I think, is amazing. It's a wonderful example of how
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  Speaker 3: it takes a village. You know, many parents of children
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  Speaker 3: with disabilities and with needs are overwhelmed by it especially,
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  Speaker 3: and families are very, very vulnerable and in this case,
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  Speaker 3: it's a remarkable story really because we now have, as
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  Speaker 3: I understand, a family, you know, a good functioning family
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  Speaker 3: of the biological parents, and Janet is a very functioning
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  Speaker 3: family unit as well, and she is the adoptive mother.
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  Speaker 3: She's got a great sense of commitment, the sort of
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  Speaker 3: commitment that parents have to their children. It's quite a
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  Speaker 3: moving story. And I think that combination of that and
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  Speaker 3: two surgeons who in their own way also were both thoughtful, reflective, interesting,
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  Speaker 3: and really committed to it. It's nice to mention too
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  Speaker 3: that it was in the public section of the children's
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  Speaker 3: hospital around Wig and Angus again when I asked him
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  Speaker 3: to find this case. Half of his work is private
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  Speaker 3: patients and half is public, and he went out of
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  Speaker 3: his way to do this in the public section because
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  Speaker 3: he really believes strongly in the public health system and
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  Speaker 3: says it's a wonderful thing that we need to kind
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  Speaker 3: of showcase and remember. And so I think overall it's
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  Speaker 3: been a very nice, affecting story to do.
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  Speaker 6: He has been the bravest little monkey. Oscar is already
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  Speaker 6: in so much less pain. He kicks up his legs
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  Speaker 6: I call them happy legs, ready to go out the
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  Speaker 6: door and see the world.
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  Speaker 1: It's an inspiring story and what an inspiring family.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Helen, Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Helen Trinker is an associate editor with The Australian. Her
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  Speaker 1: story about OSCAR and all the nation's best coverage of
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  Speaker 1: health and the medical system is live right now at
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot a u slash health