Saint Darcy bucks odds to fly high
Justine Rowe telephoned her husband Brendan around midday on Saturday a week ago: “Darcy’s playing league, you better come in,” was the gist of her message.
The first GNFL senior appearance of their Nagle Catholic College-educated teenage son was only one reason the Mullewa farming couple had to be at the Mullewa-Towns game. Their pleasure was obvious — not so the pain of the past which was etched in their memories.
One wouldn’t know by looking at his strapping size, but 14 years ago when he was just days old, Darcy Rowe hung between life and death.
Born on April 23 (the same date as his mum), 2001, Darcy left St. John of God Geraldton well and happy.
Days later and dangerously ill, he was rushed back to hospital, his mother informed he had a congenital heart defect and was in heart failure.
He was put on life support and flown by the Royal Flying Doctor Service to Perth, but he needed treatment Princess Margaret Hospital couldn’t offer — and was placed in a humidicrib, his tiny body escorted by a doctor and nurse on a domestic flight to Melbourne.
Less than two weeks after taking his first breath, Darcy could have had his last. He had suffered a coarctation of the aorta.
“His aorta had an extra bend in it — blood wasn’t getting down to his lower limbs, ” Justine, a freelance photographer, said.
“He could have become a paraplegic, he could have died.
“They did the operation in through his ribcage. His body was like a hose with a kink in it. They had to cut the kink out and tie it up again.
“He was on life support, we were nervous wrecks by his side.
“He’s the baby of our three; if he had been the first-born, I don’t think he would have survived. We mightn’t have known what to do.
“He’s big and strong now and there have been no repercussions.
“I was pretty emotional at the footy. I didn’t want him to play; I did want him to play. I was probably worse on Mother’s Day.”
Rowe made an impressive debut in the Saints two-point win on May 9.
