{"id":8735,"date":"2021-03-30T17:37:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T06:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=8735"},"modified":"2021-03-30T17:47:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T06:47:45","slug":"harrys-happy-rebound-health-system-kicks-into-gear-to-save-bub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/harrys-happy-rebound-health-system-kicks-into-gear-to-save-bub\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry\u2019s happy rebound – Health system kicks into gear to save bub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words:<\/strong>\u00a0Brigid O\u2019Connell, Herald Sun<\/p>\n

Photography:<\/strong>\u00a0David Caird, Herald Sun<\/p>\n

The blood test results defied what doctors saw in front of them. On paper, Harry Warnock should be critically ill with such a low blood count. But as fast as the rare condition took hold of the then four-month-old\u2019s kidneys, he recovered just as quickly thanks to a life-saving drug and top-class medical system that joined its links across the state to help him.<\/p>\n

Harry had always been a pale baby. Mum Lisa Warnock said it wasn\u2019t until he started refusing feeds and sleeping all day her gut told her something wasn\u2019t right. Harry was sent straight from the hospital in Benalla to Wangaratta.<\/p>\n

With the results of his blood tests, the paediatrician there called The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital paediatric nephrologist Tom Forbes for advice.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Harrison Warnock from Benalla has rare condition called haemolytic uraemic syndrome.
Picture: David Caird<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe was profoundly anaemic. Numbers for any other child, if they happened acutely, you\u2019d say they\u2019d be life threatening,\u201d Dr Forbes said.<\/p>\n

PIPER, the Paediatric Infant Perinatal Emergency Retrieval team, was summoned to fly Harry to Melbourne. Tests confirmed he had a rare abnormality of his immune and blood-clotting system called haemolytic uraemic syndrome, which causes blood clots to form in vessels of the kidneys.<\/p>\n

Dr Forbes said they got special approval from the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme to treat Harry with a life-saving drug called eculizumab, which he will need every few weeks for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

He has also undergone genetic testing through the Kidney Flagship program, its establishment funded by the Good Friday Appeal, to use genetic testing to improve and personalise the treatment of kidney disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe control of the disease and recovery we\u2019ve seen in Harrison is just astounding. He is essentially back to normal,\u201d Dr Forbes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story speaks to the great collaboration we have between the Children\u2019s and regional centres, the retrieval service, the application we made for this very expensive drug, and the genetic service that launched a rapid investigation. It pulls together a lot of the strengths we have for paediatric care in Victoria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now home and eight months old, Harry still has an IV line in his chest for ongoing infusions.<\/p>\n

Harry is just one of the many Victorian children who has benefitted from funds raised via the Good Friday Appeal. For more information about this year\u2019s appeal and to donate, visit www.goodfridayappeal.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The blood test results defied what doctors saw in front of them. On paper, Harry Warnock should be critically ill with such a low blood count. But as fast as the rare condition took hold of the then four-month-old\u2019s kidneys, he recovered just as quickly thanks to a life-saving drug and top-class medical system. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":8736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,7198,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-good-friday-appeal","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8735","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\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8735"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8739,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8735\/revisions\/8739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}