In the News

November 26th 2002

Two-year-old Sam yesterday ... starts his first day at crèche today.  Picture Peter Bennett.

Sam defies odds to be normal kid

by Edith Bevin

Little Sam Jewell has defied the odds in a big way.  Sam, 2 starts his first day at crèche today.  The toddler was born with hypo-plastic Left Heart Syndrome - which meant he had only half a heart.  His dad Andrew, 30, said doctors told him and his wife Deanne, 28, that Sam had only a 20 percent chance of survival.  "They sort of said 'take him home and watch him die'.  "He would have survived the first four days and then the valve would have started to shut down," he said.  Sam underwent two emergency operations in Melbourne - the first when he was just five days old, the second when he was three months old.  The operations reconstructed his heart - allowing the right side to perform all the functions that his missing left half would normally have done.  Sam turned two on October 28 and, while he still needs a final operation, he is a normal, healthy boy.  So normal in fact doctors have now pronounced him strong enough to mix it with the other children at Jingili Child Care Centre.  "It's a big day," Mr Jewell said.  "We didn't think this day would come - he was born in Darwin but then flown down to Melbourne for the surgery after he was born.  "It is a big event.  It's good to get him with other kids - I'm always with him - so he's probably a bit sick of dad and probably wants the variety of being with other children.  "We have to watch him and be careful but other than that he's just like a normal kid.  "He's prone to infections so we just have be very careful with other kids.  "If he gets a cold - it will be twice as bad as the others.  But really this is just the start of his school life."

*Sam has also featured in another article along with Casey (HLHS) also from the NT to read this story just click the next button, Casey's page will open in a separate window just close when your finished.