Just over nineteen months ago, two week old Kane Holmes was at the first of many crossroads of his very young life.
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However, the youngster who at times looked set to face a bleak future, if there was to be a future at all, was saved by the world's best at the Royal Children's Hospital.
Born five weeks premature at the Ballarat Base Hospital, Kane had to be a fighter right from the start, but nothing could have prepared Kane's parents Candace and Russell Holmes for what was about to follow.
Kane was starting to have heart failure in his second week of life and was transferred from Ballarat to the Monash Medical Centre, where he was diagnosed with multiple heart defects. The most serious of these was a coarctation of the aorta, which affects just one in one million people.
Doctors said that the type surgery that Kane needed could not be performed at Monash and he would need to be transferred to the Royal Children's Hospital within the next few days.
Kane arrived at the Royal Children's Hospital four days later and his cardiac surgery went very well.
The youngster spent two weeks in intensive care and one week in the cardiac ward (Koala), before he was transferred to the Ballarat Base. This step alone gave Russell and Candace hope that everything was going to be fine.
In another twist, Kane only spent a week back in Ballarat before he was rushed back to the Royal Children's Hospital. This time, he was taken to the Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with a septic shock infection, which was to repeat three more times in the next four months.
This was until surgery found and fixed a very rare condition in Kane's large bowel which was most likely due to his earlier heart condition.
Kane arrived home to Stawell for the first time on February 12, 2013 at six months of age. He also came home with a feeding tube and pump, which he come off in September last year.
"Since then, he has continued to develop and make great progress, but he still has some heart issues," Russell Holmes said.
"One thing we can never forget is the great care that Kane received at the RCH and how important the research is that is done there.
"The old appeal slogan 'Give that they may grow' means so much to us and so many others.
"We encourage the community to please dig deep for the Royal Children's Hospital Appeal on Good Friday."
