Olive Scott had a stroke as a baby, but the Royal Children’s Hospital helped her thrive
To see Olive Scott run and jump alongside her prep classmates, is to see the end result of a hard slog that was Operation Save Olive.
The five-year-old from Sale is one of the youngest children in Australia to have a stroke. The devastating neurological insult struck when she was just an hour old.
“She is doing a hundred million things I never thought she would do,” mum Chloe Hickling said.
“We are grateful every day for her.”
Olive at The Royal Children’s Hospital
Olive’s progress is testament to the expertise of surgeons and neurologists at the Royal Children’s Hospital, its physical therapists and the determination of her family to work hard with rehabilitation every day.
“They said those first few years were crucial with neuroplasticity of the brain and that we needed to take full advantage of that. That’s what we did,” said Mrs Hickling.
“We slammed her with speech therapy, occupational therapy and physio. It was super tough at the time. But I look back on it now I’m so thankful I listened to the Children’s and did that, because now we’ve got a functioning child.
“She is going to a mainstream primary school. She does handstands and runs and jumps.”
Originally published in the Herald Sun, April 12, 2019
Words: Brigid O’Connell
Images: Jay Town
To read the original story, visit the Herald Sun website.
