At just two days old, Monique Jacobs was diagnosed with congenital lobar emphysema, and at 12 days old, she underwent surgery to have some of her lung and chest wall removed.
Key points:
- Monique Jacobs developed scoliosis after surgery as a baby
- She wore a brace but worked out how to remove it
- She had a body cast fitted in a new service in Adelaide
The surgery caused Monique’s spine to curve, and before she was one she was diagnosed with scoliosis — an abnormal curvature of the spine.
“Once she had the surgery, her spine started to grow abnormally [but] thankfully it was picked up quite early on and then she was referred to us in terms of management of that,” Catherine Cartwright, who treats Monique at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital, said.
The doctors gave Monique a removable back brace which needed to be worn for about 23 hours a day but could be taken off for things like bathing and swimming.
“Unfortunately, she got very good at removing the brace and hiding the brace and so we’ve now moved to casting her,” Dr Cartwright said.
Monique’s mother, Chantele Jacobs, said that was a challenge.
“[It was] a little bit frustrating because at least with a brace, we did have the luxury of giving her a bath and shower during the day, but she said it was uncomfortable and she couldn’t play how she usually played, so I kind of understood why she wanted to take it off,” she said.
Her doctors decided to put the four-year-old in a full-body cast — a process that up until recently was only available interstate.
The casting is done under general anaesthetic in theatre and has to be changed every three months as Monique grows.
Her mother said it was a relief the family could get it done locally.
And especially with the world at the moment, it’s very unpredictable and I wouldn’t want to be travelling to Sydney.”
New addition to hospital
The hospital’s clinical lead for orthotics and prosthetics, Alex Rimington, said doing body casts was a great addition to the hospital’s repertoire.
“We had a new staff come on, new team members come in where we had a bigger, broader expertise in the area,” Dr Rimington said.
“We upskilled and did extra training in it and were also able to go over to Sydney and do training courses with their team there.”
She said the casting was working very well for Monique.
“It means we’ve achieved a great result really quickly.”
She also said more children were benefiting as a result of the casting being available in Adelaide.
“More families are taking this service up because they don’t have to travel, which I think has meant that we’re able to give better quality care to these children,” she said.
Better outcome long-term
Ms Jacobs said she hoped it would mean Monique could avoid major surgery.
“If we can avoid an extensive surgery when she’s older, or I’d love to say no surgery in the future, but anything that’s going to help her, I’m happy to look at the bigger picture,” she said.
It is a hope shared by Dr Cartwright, who said she would like to see less surgery needed in children thanks to the casting being more readily available for those living in Adelaide.
“Hopefully, in the long term, it’ll have the ultimate outcome of reducing the need for children to either have surgery, or if they eventually do need surgery when they’re teenagers, that it’s a much smaller, much safer operation that has less impact on their quality of life and their ability to function day to day,” she said.