Like thousands of people across Victoria, Ellie Gibson is alive today because of surgeons at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
“I wouldn’t have lived without them,” the Leopold teen said, after celebrating her 14th birthday at home on Monday amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ellie was born in 2006 with a rare combination of four congenital defects, including a hole in the heart.
Libby remembers the day a cardiologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital told her Ellie, then six-days-old, would need open-heart surgery.
“It was like someone winded me – it was the most horrific news,” she said.
“After that I didn’t hear very much. My mind went blank.
“All I could remember was seeing this little baby … and thinking she might not survive.”
Six months later, staff allowed Libby to hold Ellie as they put her to sleep before she put her life in their hands.
Surgeons operated on Ellie for seven hours while she was hooked up to a heart-lung bypass machine, before restarting her tiny heart.
Libby and husband Wayne rushed back when they heard the surgery was over.
“Being a nurse myself I was semi-prepared for what I would see,” Libby said.
“But nothing can prepare you for seeing your child hooked to tubes with machines and wires everywhere.”
Ellie is now an energetic and carefree teenager who loves tennis, fishing, and playing the flute and the guitar.
“Obviously, I’m a bit biased but I think she’s pretty cool,” Libby said.
With the COVID-19 pandemic preventing thousands of volunteers from hitting the streets for the Good Friday Appeal, organisers have set up a ‘virtual’ tin rattle online to help kids like Ellie.
“Please donate and support the Royal Children’s – it saves kids like me,” Ellie said.
Mum Libby cooked a “banquet” and put up a sign saying ‘Toot, it’s Ellie’s birthday’ to celebrate the occasion.
“People were honking their horns all day,” Ellie said.
To donate visit: virtualtinshake.com.
