{"id":4084,"date":"2014-04-01T02:01:01","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T15:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=4084"},"modified":"2015-04-29T11:53:29","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T01:53:29","slug":"lucas-back-on-his-feet-no-sweat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/lucas-back-on-his-feet-no-sweat\/","title":{"rendered":"Luca&#8217;s back on his feet, no sweat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Words:\u00a0<\/strong>Brigid O&#8217;Connell<strong><br \/>\nPhotography:<\/strong>\u00a0Jay Town<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4087\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2014\/04\/Luca.jpeg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-4087\" alt=\"Luca\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2014\/04\/Luca-210x160.jpeg\" width=\"210\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">RCH patient, Luca Luvera (7) takes his new leg for a spin. Photo courtesy of the Herald Sun.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Luca Luvera is back walking\u00a0almost a year to the day since\u00a0losing his leg to cancer.\u00a0The seven-year-old was\u00a0fitted with his new prosthetic\u00a0leg at this week, after being\u00a0unable to walk for the past\u00a0year following a life-saving\u00a0amputation.<\/p>\n<p>In a radical procedure at The Royal Children\u2019s\u00a0Hospital (RCH), surgeons used\u00a0Luca\u2019s calf bone to\u00a0reconstruct the main length\u00a0of his thigh.\u00a0Because there were\u00a0tumours in both his knee and,\u00a0unusually, higher up on the\u00a0femur, this surgical\u00a0technique ensured his\u00a0amputated limb was at its\u00a0maximum length to fit\u00a0a prosthetic leg.<\/p>\n<p>Luca would otherwise\u00a0have been forced to rely on\u00a0crutches or a wheelchair for<br \/>\nthe rest of this life.\u00a0The Herald Sun captured\u00a0Luca\u2019s first time stepping out\u00a0on his new leg.<\/p>\n<p>With mum Anna and RCH\u00a0physiotherapist Greg Cull\u00a0proudly watching, Luca\u00a0walked halfway along the\u00a0parallel bars, looking himself\u00a0up and down in the mirror\u00a0and admiring each deliberate\u00a0stride.<\/p>\n<p>The boy, who has already\u00a0asked when he can return\u00a0to playing football and\u00a0swimming, realised with\u00a0delight along the way that\u00a0he would always have one\u00a0shoe that would never be\u00a0sweaty.<\/p>\n<p>Luca was diagnosed with\u00a0an aggressive bone cancer,\u00a0osteosarcoma, on Good<br \/>\nFriday last year, after his\u00a0complaints of a sore knee\u00a0progressed to pains so severe\u00a0he could no longer walk.<\/p>\n<p>Anna and husband Rocco\u00a0worked hard to hide their\u00a0grief throughout the 20\u00a0rounds of chemotherapy\u00a0either side of the surgery.\u00a0They never used the word\u00a0cancer and only told Luca\u00a0about the amputation a week\u00a0before the surgery by Mark<br \/>\nO\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was really positive, he\u00a0just took everything in his\u00a0stride,\u201d Ms Luvera said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe gained a lot of\u00a0strength from him. I think\u00a0a lot of people did. He has\u00a0never once complained.\u201d\u00a0A helpful boost to Luca\u2019s\u00a0mindset was the hospital\u00a0introducing him to other<br \/>\namputee children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the mums sent me\u00a0videos of her daughter rock\u00a0climbing and riding her bike.\u00a0He saw he\u2019d still be able to do\u00a0things, that it wasn\u2019t the end\u00a0of the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully we\u2019re on the\u00a0home stretch now. I don\u2019t\u00a0think we\u2019ll ever be the same\u00a0people we were, but our focus\u00a0is about getting him walking\u00a0properly and giving him the\u00a0life he deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To donate to the Good\u00a0Friday Appeal, go to\u00a0<a title=\"Good Friday Appeal\" href=\"http:\/\/goodfridayappeal.com.au\" target=\"_blank\">goodfridayappeal.com.au<\/a>\u00a0or phone 9292 1166.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luca Luvera is back walking almost a year to the day since losing his leg to cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-friday-appeal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4088,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions\/4088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}