Eleven year old Alex and Tailem, who is nine, joined Minister Bronwyn Pike to celebrate the launch of the new Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Service (VPRS) at The Royal Children’s Hospital on Sunday 6 November. The VPRS is a specialist service that will cater for the complex rehabilitation needs of children and adolescents who have sustained major illness or injury or have congenital conditions that will benefit from rehabilitation treatment.
The new service comprises a multidisciplinary team of 17 doctors, nurses and therapists who provide rehabilitation care for children as inpatients at RCH, as outpatients at the hospital or close to their home, as well as an outreach service for home care.
Alex and Tailem are just two of approximately 150 children and young people who will require rehabilitation each year. Many more will need specialist long-term follow up to monitor how they develop both physically and cognitively.
Both were healthy and active before being struck by unexpected illness. Back in August Alex was playing soccer at school when she lost strength in her right leg and collapsed. She had suffered a stroke and her right side was paralysed for two weeks. Alex is recovering well physically but her speech is affected and she returns to RCH three times a week for rehabilitation sessions.
Like Alex, Tailem also became ill at school although he had been slightly unwell for some weeks before. A CT scan showed he had an abscess on the brain and he underwent two lengthy operations at RCH to drain the fluid. Tailem spent a month recovering in RCH and having physiotherapy to help him walk again. He undergoes rehabilitation sessions at RCH three times a week to regain movement in his arm.
Dr James Rice, Director of the RCH Rehabilitation Service said the focus of the service is not to cure but to optimise function and minimise disability. “The service aims to help children and young people return to the everyday life they lead before they were injured or became ill, or in the case of children with a congenital condition, to help them reach their full physical potential,” said Dr Rice.