My son Joshua who is now 14 years old, and on his 30th operation and lucky to be here.
The Fund Raiser is to hopefully raise enough to go private and get a proper prosthetic leg.
The NHS are wonderful but he is on his 4th leg and they just
do not give him a good quality of living.
Background story:
Joshua became ill at the age of 9 months, we found a red mark on his back. I knew something was not right so we called an ambulance which was luckily enough passing just a couple of roads away and was with us in minutes, this is the reason why Joshua is still alive today.
Joshua was now covered from head to toe in red marks, we feared the worst and it was confirmed to be Meningitis. We were told it was touch and go whether he would live and that they did not have the correct equipment to handle this case so they stabilized Joshua.
We were then blue lighted to Bristol’s Children unit. Joshua was now almost purple all over so we were told to get family here ASAP to say their goodbyes.
They said he only had a few hours to live as he was now on 90% drugs/10% him fighting to stay alive.
I cannot put into words as his dad how I felt at this time and the thought of losing my son was heart breaking.
The doctors came running out to say they weren’t sure what was going
on but Joshua was not giving up and was now 70 % drugs/30 % him fighting back.
Time ticked on and Joshua had pulled it around to 20% drugs and 80% himself.
He still had marks but not as many and sadly the septicemia had set into his fingers and toes they had now turned black and we had to make and decision whether to remove them to give him more of a chance in life. We made the hard decision to go ahead and remove fingers and toes.
The doctors said it could be possible to save a couple of digits to help him feed himself and write etc.
He was left with a stump for a hand and foot, two digits on one hand and one toe on the other foot.
Our boy had been saved even though missing fingers and toes the amazing turn around was complete or so we thought. We had the horrible duty of trying to stretch his digits to enable to have two functional hands with two digits on each hand not just one, this was the first of his thirty operations.
He was back and forth from the hospital having many operations along the way. The next big decision was to have his foot removed and have a prosthetic foot, which he decided by himself to have done which was a very grown up thing to do at the age of 11.
Unfortunately this did not work, although Joshua just got on with it for about eighteen months the sores and rubs were just unbearable so he decided to go for a below the knee amputation and to this day he fills me with pride and I am forever telling him how brave and grown up he is about all of the operations he has gone through.
The latest operation was to open his front and back of his leg to adjust nerves and muscles, which was very stressful but successful. We are all hoping for time away from the hospitals for now but he will still have to go regularly until he stops growing into adulthood. In spite
of what Joshua has gone through he still manages to smile and get on with life. He is a top grade pupil at school even with many weeks off due to being in hospital and when he leaves is hoping to go and work for Apple or be a computer programmer.
If you have taken time to read this I am sorry I rattled on, in advance we would love to thank you all for your kindness and support.
Proud Father,
The Fund Raiser is to hopefully raise enough to go private and get a proper prosthetic leg.
The NHS are wonderful but he is on his 4th leg and they just
do not give him a good quality of living.
Background story:
Joshua became ill at the age of 9 months, we found a red mark on his back. I knew something was not right so we called an ambulance which was luckily enough passing just a couple of roads away and was with us in minutes, this is the reason why Joshua is still alive today.
Joshua was now covered from head to toe in red marks, we feared the worst and it was confirmed to be Meningitis. We were told it was touch and go whether he would live and that they did not have the correct equipment to handle this case so they stabilized Joshua.
We were then blue lighted to Bristol’s Children unit. Joshua was now almost purple all over so we were told to get family here ASAP to say their goodbyes.
They said he only had a few hours to live as he was now on 90% drugs/10% him fighting to stay alive.
I cannot put into words as his dad how I felt at this time and the thought of losing my son was heart breaking.
The doctors came running out to say they weren’t sure what was going
on but Joshua was not giving up and was now 70 % drugs/30 % him fighting back.
Time ticked on and Joshua had pulled it around to 20% drugs and 80% himself.
He still had marks but not as many and sadly the septicemia had set into his fingers and toes they had now turned black and we had to make and decision whether to remove them to give him more of a chance in life. We made the hard decision to go ahead and remove fingers and toes.
The doctors said it could be possible to save a couple of digits to help him feed himself and write etc.
He was left with a stump for a hand and foot, two digits on one hand and one toe on the other foot.
Our boy had been saved even though missing fingers and toes the amazing turn around was complete or so we thought. We had the horrible duty of trying to stretch his digits to enable to have two functional hands with two digits on each hand not just one, this was the first of his thirty operations.
He was back and forth from the hospital having many operations along the way. The next big decision was to have his foot removed and have a prosthetic foot, which he decided by himself to have done which was a very grown up thing to do at the age of 11.
Unfortunately this did not work, although Joshua just got on with it for about eighteen months the sores and rubs were just unbearable so he decided to go for a below the knee amputation and to this day he fills me with pride and I am forever telling him how brave and grown up he is about all of the operations he has gone through.
The latest operation was to open his front and back of his leg to adjust nerves and muscles, which was very stressful but successful. We are all hoping for time away from the hospitals for now but he will still have to go regularly until he stops growing into adulthood. In spite
of what Joshua has gone through he still manages to smile and get on with life. He is a top grade pupil at school even with many weeks off due to being in hospital and when he leaves is hoping to go and work for Apple or be a computer programmer.
If you have taken time to read this I am sorry I rattled on, in advance we would love to thank you all for your kindness and support.
Proud Father,
Organizer
Robert Killingbeck
Organizer