media reports

media reports - 2006

Selected newspaper article reprints about people of short stature, including SSPA members, as well as short stature in general from newspapers and magazines around Australia from 2006.
For articles from around the world about people of short stature and short stature in general, go to http://www.shortsupport.org/cgi-bin/news_list.cgi

2006

Headlines

30 January 2006 Lachlan legs it to class
Melbourne Herald-Sun (Victoria, Australia)
30 December 2006 Quest for knowledge is a search for help
The West Australian (Western Australia)

Lachlan legs it to class
Herald-Sun (Victoria, Australia), 30 January 2006.

LACHLAN Felsch starts school tomorrow with a new spring in his step.
Less than a year ago Lachlan had major surgery on his legs which left him in a wheelchair with heavy metal frames on both legs that had to be adjusted four times a day.
Born with dwarfism, Lachlan's legs were bowed so badly he was almost unable to walk.
Ironically, the day he had surgery last March was the first day Lachlan's legs hurt too much to walk. At the time Lachlan said: "They're going to fix my legs up and my legs will be so fast you won't be able to stop me."
Fast-forward almost 12 months and you can't keep the gutsy six-year-old still.
Lachlan bounced back quickly from the surgery and can't wait to start prep at Ruskin Park Primary School in Mooroolbark tomorrow.
The keen cricketer is looking forward to joining big sister Stephanie, who is starting grade two.
Lachlan could have started last year, but with the surgery and rehabilitation on the horizon parents Darlene and Richard decided another year at kinder was in order. "It's going to be fun," he said.
After everything they have been through in the past year, Lachlan's parents are excited for their son. "It will be really good," Mr Felsch said.
During the four-hour surgery, orthopedic surgeon Leo Donnan broke Lachlan's shin bones and drilled diamond-tipped metal pins through the bones, which attached to an external frame that was adjusted four times a day to gently realign the bones.
The frames and pins were in place for about three months, and Lachlan spent a further three weeks in plaster.
Mrs Felsch said she had been dreading the operation and recovery but Lachlan's awesome can-do attitude and cheeky disposition made it easier.
Lachlan has since asked his parents why they decided to let doctors operate on his legs.
After they explained that he would not have been able to walk, run or climb and would have been in a wheelchair, he thanked them for the decision.
"After he had it done he said: `Thank you for getting my legs done, I'm so glad I got my legs done'," Mrs Felsch said.

Quest for knowledge is a search for help
The West Australian (Western Australia), 30 December 2006.

Twenty-six-year-old Perth woman Claire Marshall could literally be one in a million - born with a rare syndrome linked to dwarfism which has doctors baffled about how to help her.
Neither she nor specialists at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital treating her know of anyone else in Perth with the genetic condition Russell-Silver syndrome, which causes short stature and organs and limbs to grow at abnormal rates.
It was named after two American doctors who diagnosed it for the first time in the 1950s after noticing several children who were small for their age and had immature bone development.
There is no known cause and most cases are thought to be prompted by random new genetic mutations rather than inherited.
In Ms Marshall's case, there was no family history and her parents tested negative to the trait.
But the syndrome has caused a skull deformity which creates enormous pressure and blinding headaches that even surgery cannot help.
She cannot drive because of epileptic fits and cannot have children because she had to be sterilised when internal organs and her pelvis grew abnormally.
Now Ms Marshall is trying to learn more about Russell-Silver syndrome and hopes to find someone with a relative or friend who can help her, but has so far found no one in WA who can shed more light on the debilitating condition.
SCGH neurologists have tried surgery and drugs to relieve her chronic headaches, which are caused by the odd shape of her skull, but so far they have achieved minimal benefit.
Ms Marshall, who is 1.47m, or 4ft 10in, tall, lives on her own with support from her family, including a sister and three brothers, none of whom has the syndrome. But sh~e feels alone in battling her condition.
"The problem is that I don't know if the headaches are a normal part of Russell-Silver syndrome. I have them 24/7 and they're like really bad muscle spasms," she said.
"It makes it hard when even the doctors don't know a lot about this syndrome because it's so rare and they haven't seen it before.
"If I could find out a bit more about it, then it would make it easier to handle."

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