Keeping tiny Tommy Day close to his family

The owners of a remote Pilbara station have sent a message of thanks to the community for getting behind them after their newest family member struggled through a rare birth defect. It has been a rough couple of months for Tangadee Station, near Newman, with the family battling droughts while newborn Tommy Day underwent surgery. Young Tommy was due to be born on November 21, but he was born five days overdue with tracheoesophageal fistula, a rare birth defect which meant his oesophagus was connected to his trachea, not his stomach. Since then, he has undergone several surgeries, resulting in vocal cord paralysis from a nerve being hit during surgery, among other complications. His mother Tracey Bull said in the early hours of January 10, the family were woken by a call from the hospital asking them to come in as his body could not cope any longer. “When we got to the hospital we had a meeting with his doctors and it was agreed Tommy needed a tracheostomy to bypass his upper airway,” she said. “He spent a week sedated and on the ventilator to allow the opening in his throat to heal.” Tommy will need to be in Perth for the next one to two years and will require 24-hour care, which Mrs Bull said both she and father Ryan were being trained to provide. “Ryan will need to continue going back home to help with the management as it is one of three family-owned stations that are being crippled by the drought,” she said. Tommy’s great-aunt Patsy Beswick has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of the night nurse who will help provide 24-hour care, as well as Ryan’s fuel costs going between the stations and Perth. Mrs Bull said the family were incredibly thankful to all who had donated, which had helped slightly reduce the pain of events. “The kindness and generosity from our community has been overwhelming, we never expected so many people to want to help,” she said. “We were knocked back for paid parental leave payments through Centrelink for some reason, so the community help will go a long way to helping us set up for the time we need to be in Perth. “The doctors and nurses at Perth Children’s Hospital have been truly amazing and we know Tommy has had the best possible care.”