Baby Max Kirby's Brain Surgery

I write on behalf of my dearest friends and their beautiful little boy Max, I attended their wedding in June 2015 in which Nome’s was 6 months pregnant with Max, since then I have watched their family happy & fulfilled, that is rare these days. Happy….

Last month Max was a bit off and clingy and not sleeping well, he then started to lose a bit of balance and not wanted to walk as much as usual and just wanted to be picked up all day, That same week Max had an MRI done and unfortunately they found a large brain tumour.

Lincoln, Naomi and Max were flown from their home town of Darwin down to Melbourne where they checked into the Ronald McDonald House and Max was admitted to Monash hospital immediately, 2 days later he had to undergo 8 hours of brain surgery in which they tried to remove the tumour (only being able to remove 30%, a tumour the size of a lemon) after further investigation it was diagnosed a grade 2 ependymoma a rare, aggressive and malignant brain cancer.

Max then had a backward step a couple of days after surgery, he developed some fluid on the brain post-surgery and had to be rushed into theatre again for a drain to be put in and to monitor the pressure . He returned from surgery more awake and alert than before and was grabbing his teddies and playing with a toy on the bed and watching the odd cartoon until he would get too tired.

Max was not recovering as quickly from the 2 surgeries as the doctors would have hoped so on the 6th of April he underwent more surgery to get shunt put in as he couldn’t drain CSF properly, at the same time they also did a lumbar puncture and a port-a-Cath to administer chemo through as they wanted to start a course of chemo straight away to try to shrink the tumor.

Last week Linc and Nomes decided to get a second opinion and contacted Dr Charlie Teo, a leading brain surgeon based in Sydney, they flew Max to Sydney yesterday and met with Dr Teo this morning. Dr Teo has advised that he would like to try to remove the tumor which is growing on Maxi’s brain stem. Dr Teo has advised that if he cannot remove 100% of the tumor Max’s life expectancy will be 12 months. These tumours are frequently chemo resistant and the best outcome for long term survival will be a full surgical resection.

Now the  reason for my Gofund me page, the KICKER, if they havent been dealing with enough is the surgery which Dr Teo would like to perform on Monday is going to cost Nomes and Linc $110,000. Lincoln is an apprentice boat mechanic and obviously currently not working due to being relocated between Melbourne and now Sydney, Nomes was a nurse and then a full time Mum to their beautiful little boy. After the surgery the Kirby’s can expect to be in Sydney for a few months, with the first month Max being in ICU and then the months after him trying to recover, learning how to talk, walk etc. again.     

I am asking you to dig deep, The whole Kirby & Charsley families and friends are absolutely devastated as you can imagine, their beautiful little healthy boy is going through a really tough time and the whole process has been traumatic and continues to throw curve balls as each day passes, it’s hard to believe only a month ago life was perfect.

Anything you can donate to help will be cherished, all funds will be depostied directly into the Kirby's account. A message from Linc & Nomes direct- Please everyone, keep him in your thoughts and pray for him to get him through this time Love the Kirby's xxx