Carramar youngster to benefit from new Joondalup Health Campus children’s ward

ONE of the children who will reap the benefits from the new Joondalup Health Campus children’s ward is eight-year-old Lux Harrington.

Lux has severe epilepsy, which restricts her to a wheelchair most of the time.

The Carramar resident has endured medical issues since her birth at JHC.

Born seven weeks premature, she was transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital with a collapsed lung, heart murmur, difficulties tolerating feeds and bouts of reflux.

Her mother Jo Harrington said she refused to eat and “literally was starving herself”.

On the eve of her first birthday, Lux had a permanent naso-gastro tube fitted, meaning she could be fed at home. But regular trips back to Joondalup were necessary.

“Lux really spent the first two years of her life at Joondalup Health Campus,” her mother said.

“We spent more time in than out.”

Lux suffered her first grand mal seizure shortly after turning two.

Then they started happening every second day, interspersed with the absent variety of seizure, which she suffers daily.

But surgery is not an option for Lux. “Surgery works best if the seizures are coming from one part of the brain – and from the types of seizures Lux is having it’s clear that they are coming from different parts of the brain,” Ms Harrington said.

Specialist appointments and 15 types of medication remain a constant for Lux but her mother emphasised she was not a “poor me type of kid”.

“She’s hilarious and she doesn’t let her limitations hold her back,” she said.