Peter Ngelea
Eight-year-old Peter suffered severe burns to 70% of his body in a 2024 house fire in Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, which also killed his sibling and burnt his mother badly. Peter spent many months in National Referral Hospital but there was only so much the doctors there could do for him – he needed Continued…
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Celestina
The bonds that are formed between ROMAC members and our young patients are often enduring ones. Recently, our ROMAC Timor-Leste team caught up with Celestina a decade after her successful treatment. Celestina was born in 2003 in Timor-Leste with Ellis–Van Creveld syndrome (EVC), a rare genetic disorder characterised by disabling skeletal abnormalities and life-threatening heart Continued…
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Lionel
Young Lionel was born with an imperforate anus, an often complex congenital malformation involving a range of anorectal structures, including important nerves and muscles. In his tenth year, and following frustrated attempts to correct the condition in his native Solomon Islands, Lionel found the help he needed through the agency of not-for-profit charity ROMAC and Continued…
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Krisselda
Krisselda, a Papua New Guinean girl who arrived in Canberra in March 2024, had multiple surgeries at the Canberra Hospital for caudal duplication syndrome, a very rare genetic condition in which internal systems are duplicated and bowel and bladder functions are not normal. Krisselda made good progress with her medical issues under the care of Continued…
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Stancia
Delightful 8-year-old Stancia is from the highlands in Goroka, PNG. She needed major corrective surgery for an ano-rectal fistula. Her operation was performed in April 2024, followed by 7 minor surgeries, to finally close her stoma. This surgery has been life-changing for Stancia and her mother Hilda.
Read this storyHaggai
Little Haggai, a baby girl from a remote mountain village in Papua New Guinea, came to Australia in the arms of her mother for emergency treatment for a massive facial disfigurement in June 2024. She is one of many children from Oceania whose lives have been changed forever by the work of ROMAC. It was Continued…
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Gabriella
Six-month-old Gabriella was treated in 2020 for a serious heart condition at Auckland’s Starship Hospital in New Zealand. She recovered well from her surgery and is now a happy, healthy child with a great future ahead.
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Vinna
Vinna, from Vanuatu, first came to ROMAC in 2017 and followed a 2-year journey to repair a multiple fracture and infection of her right leg. The final stages of treatment required the insertion of a plate to stabilise the bone graft and Vinna was due to have this plate removed in April 2020. Covid-19 intervened Continued…
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Vincent
Vincent is a Solomon Islands patient who arrived in Australia as a two-month old requiring urgent surgery to correct a blockage between his oesophagus and his stomach. This meant he had to be fed via a catheter into the stomach. Ten months later, after follow-up surgery, numerous hospital visits for day procedures, and constant monitoring Continued…
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Viliame
Four-year-old Viliame arrived in New Zealand from Fiji, bouncing into the country and sprinting about the airport, unlike many of our heart patients who often arrive feeling quite poorly. He needed surgery to treat a coronary arterial fistula – a connection between one or more of the coronary arteries and a cardiac chamber or great Continued…
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