The ups and downs of Amania's treatment
8 year old Amania Matanasiga was referred to ROMAC by Dr Surin Krishnan who was alerted to the child's plight on a visit to Suva. Amania had suffered severe nasal haemorrhaging and been flown from a small island to Suva for medical assistance in September.
Dr Krishnan is an ENT specialist in Adelaide and kindly offered to take the case here, arranging admission through the Women's and Children's Hospital. In spite of the urgency of the case it took over 6 weeks to obtain visas, passports etc.
A difficulty arose when the father's medical examination indicated that he had previously-undiagnosed active TB and his visa application was refused by Immigration. An alternative guardian had to be found and an uncle then accompanied Amania. Fortunately this carer had good English although the child spoke only a Fijian dialect.
They arrived in Adelaide Nov 18th 2007 with surgery planned for the following Thursday, after scans and a pre-op procedure, an embolisation of the arteries feeding the tumour, to reduce the risk of haemorrhage during the operation. Unfortunately on the night of the embolisation Amania had a stroke resulting from the procedure. He was rushed into ICU for several days and the main surgery was deferred a week. The child suffered hemiplegia (paralysis of the right side) and total irreversible loss of sight in the left eye.
A rehabilitation program was initiated immediately. The main surgery was finally done on November 30th 2007 with no complications and Amania was discharged from hospital 2 weeks later to continue rehab. for another 2-3 weeks.
It was wonderful to see the amazing improvement and by the time they left Adelaide on December 24th Amania was able to walk and use his right arm with only limited weakness. He will continue to be monitored at home with ongoing physiotherapy coordinated between the WCH staff and Suva Hospital.
