Surgery success for Chloe
Girl gets new ear from rib … and can't wait to get it
pierced!
A nine-year-old girl has been given a new ear that surgeons made
from one of her ribs.
Chloe Duffin suffers from one of the world's rarest conditions -
Goldenhar Syndrome. She was born with only one fully formed ear,
half a jaw and just four out of the usual seven neck bones.
Two weeks ago, the brave schoolgirl from South Lanarkshire had a
seven-hour operation that will take her a step closer to achieving
her life-long ambition - getting her ears pierced!
Mum Lynne said: "The best day of our life was after the
operation when the doctors showed us her two ears at the same level
on her face."
Surgeons took cartilage from one of Chloe's ribs and carved it
into the shape of an ear. They then took skin from her old,
mis-shapen ear and used it to cover the new ear before attaching it
to her head.
In six months time Chloe will return to hospital for a second
operation to separate the back of the new ear from her head so that
it looks exactly the same as her other normal ear.
Doctors have promised that they will pierce her ears after the
second operation as a reward for her bravery.
Her mum added: "It's amazing what they can do for Chloe. It is
going to be wonderful to see her when all the operations are
completed."
Goldenhar Syndrome is a condition that affects bones in the face
and spine. Just 200 people in the UK are thought to suffer from
it.
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Surgery success for Chloe
Children's hospital's 150-year history
The Royal Hospital for Sick Children, where brave Chloe Duffin
had her amazing ear operation, opened in 1860 in Lauriston Lane,
Edinburgh. It had just 20 beds.
At that time, more than half of all Scottish children died
before the age of five.
Three years later Queen Victoria granted permission for the
hospital to move to a larger building, Meadowside House, at the
foot of Lauriston Lane, doubling the number of beds. A wing added
in 1870 increased capacity to 72.
The current hospital in Sciennes Road, Marchmont, was built in
1895, following a nationwide appeal to raise cash for the £40,000
building. It became part of the NHS in 1948 and continues to
pioneer children's medicine and surgery.
During the centenary year in 1995, the Sick Kids Friends
Foundation raised more than £11m through another major public
appeal for a massive upgrade to fund a new wing, housing two new
children's wards, accommodation for parents and a suite of four
theatres, with recovery facilities, which was opened by Sir Cliff
Richard.
With more than 120 beds, the hospital cares for 100,000 children
a year, from Edinburgh, the east of Scotland and beyond. Its Acute
Retrieval team is one of only two in the country, bringing 150
emergency patients to Edinburgh from throughout Scotland for
specialist treatment.
Staff deal with more than 6000 emergency admissions every year,
and more than 72,000 children are seen in the outpatients
department. One in four children in Scotland will be admitted to
hospital before reaching 14.
But after nearly 120 years, the current hospital building is
crumbling and leaky, so there are plans for a new £250 million
building, due to open in 2017.
The present building is so overcrowded and "unfit for purpose"
that clinics are held in more than 47 locations throughout the
Lothians.
The new purpose-built hospital, at Little France, will have a
clinical space of more than 21,000 square metres, compared to the
present 18,000square metres at Sciennes. A network of corridors
will be added to create another 9,000 square metres, according to
NHS plans. Most patients will have their own single rooms and
parents will have beds on wards next to their children or in
separate accommodation.
The new children's hospital will be the fourth in the capital
since the 19th century. The current Sciennes building will be sold
to help fund the new facility.
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