Little boy heads home for Christmas after 18 months in hospital
A young boy is heading home to Tasmania this week after spending 18 months in hospital fighting leukaemia.
Diagnosed four years ago, Ned underwent two bone marrow transplants with the help of his sister.
“At multiple times we were offered palliative care and it was looking like that would be the only solution,” Ned’s mother Emily said.
Desperate to save his life, the local community raised $600,000 to send him for urgent treatment in the US.
Ned travelled to Seattle with his family for CAR T-cell therapy and is now cancer-free.
“The fact that he’s got out of ICU without any organ damage is just a medical miracle,” Emily Isham said.
On Monday, Ned and his family left Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital for the first time in 18 months and headed straight for the zoo, where he met some very friendly lemurs and took a selfie to savour the special moment.
“We’re just going to enjoy each moment as it comes and take this as a win, because we didn’t think we’d be here,” Emily said.
Spending Christmas together as a family in Tasmania will be the biggest gift of all.
“I’m just looking forward to seeing our kids in our home, on our bush property, just playing outside,” Ned’s father Seth Isham said.
“That will bring me joy.”
“I’m looking forward to going back to Tasmania and opening the presents,” Ned said of his return home.
“I’m looking forward to seeing my friends and my home.”
