Lewis Farrell thanked generous Victorians when he accepted the Good Friday Appeal cheque of $12,482,380 at the hospital on June 27th.

Lewis is almost 3 years old, and has just recently uttered his first words after RCH surgeon Rob Berkowitz used a rib graft to reconstruct his larynx.

Lewis was admitted to The Royal Children’s Hospital when he was a day old. 

He was born with a sub-glottic stenosis, a narrowing of the larynx affecting his vocal cords and his breathing. 

An initial procedure to correct this problem when he was a baby was unsuccessful so doctors needed to insert a tracheostomy to enable him to breathe.  This also prevented him from speaking or making any sounds.

Doctors at the RCH continued to monitor and care for him during many hospital admissions.

Last October surgeon Mr Rob Berkowitz performed the laryngeal reconstruction but it was not until April this year that the tracheostomy was finally removed when Dr Berkowitz performed further surgery to remove scar tissue.

His parents Gabby and Michael and older brother and sisters were overjoyed when he uttered his first raspy words in hospital. 

Viewers watching the Good Friday Appeal on Channel 7 this year would have seen Lewis using sign language to communicate.  Now free of the ‘trachy’ Lewis no longer needs to ‘sign’ to get his message across.

Media contact Julie Webber 0407 327 418 or 9345 5522 and page.