Why work with children?

Well the great thing about children is that they get better much quicker than adults do, and they don’t stress as much as adults do. They go through a period of when they’re quiet, and they’re obviously in pain, and they just seem to turn it off and then all of a sudden they feel better and they’re up and getting back to themselves again, whereas adults just make a much bigger deal out of it than children do.

Dealing with the kids and their personalities and getting to know them and watching them grow up is one of the great things about paediatrics ... well looking after paediatrics and children.

What challenges do you foresee for the future?

We know that we have a rapidly increasing volume of work to do and because deformities worsen with growth, you can’t afford to have long waiting lists for children in a public hospital with spine deformities or you really miss the boat. So we’re looking to make sure that we can provide a good prompt service and manage things (deformities) when they’re at a small manageable level and not have to wait until they get difficult because we didn’t have the resources to do them when we first saw them. We know what we’re going to need and we know we have the resources to do that. And when the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Mater Children’s combine we’ve got a fairly good plan to make sure that we continue running the way that it should run.

How does Bryonie’s halo work?

Well the halo is ... well actually the screws go into the outside of the bone of the scull and it gets a very good hold on the scull and from that we’re able to then put some traction, a weight over the top of the halo, and we’re steadily increasing that traction to try and pull her spine deformity straight. And if you do it slowly over, over months, then it’s much safer for Bryonie than it is trying to do it very quickly. And they often feel better with the traction on because it pulls them up straight and they just feel more comfortable, and when they get tired they can sit down because it’s got a little seat in it as well. They look terrible, but they’re painful for the first couple of days when the halo’s are put on, the kids get a headache, but thereafter they seem to cope remarkably well with them.

Do you do a lot of operations like this?

We’ve got at the moment probably about four patients, I think, in halos with traction, which is unusual, we’ve never had that many before. It’s good to have some other children with similar problems so they can share their burdens and talk about it.

How many operations has Bryonie had?

Bryonie’s had four operations I think since birth. Bryonie, might have to correct me on that I’m sure it’s about four or five. Maybe she counts having the Halo put on as an operation, I guess it is because it’s an aesthetic and that’s what I wasn’t counting that, so yeah, Bryonie would be right that’s for sure.