Bromsgrove brothers' delight at hybrid theatre opening

Buy photos » Max and Ben Ponsonby have both received treatment at Birmingham Children's Hospital. s

TWO BROMSGROVE brothers whose lives were both saved by emergency surgery at Birmingham Children's celebrated the official opening of the UK's first 'hybrid' operating theatre at the hospital yesterday (Wednesday).

And Max 13, and Ben Ponsonby, 11, have been instrumental in helping make the £2million state-of-the-art centre a reality through years of family fund-raising activities.

The hybrid theatre allows open heart and keyhole surgery on the same child at the same time, which boosts their chances of survival by reducing recovery time. It is estimated an extra 300 patients a year will be treated there initially, with more in the future. The project also includes expanding the intensive care unit from 20 beds to 31, along with a catheterisation laboratory, where keyhole cardiac surgery can also be carried out.

Max suffers from the life-threatening pulmonary atresia after being born without a pulmonary heart valve. Three days before Christmas, he became one of the first to be treated in the new theatre when world-renowned surgeon William Brawn replaced his donor valve and repaired a leaking blood vessel.

Mr Brawn performed the original open heart surgery on Max when he was just four-days-old and fighting for his life.

During that operation, the surgeon spliced a donor valve into the walnut-sized heart and used a section of bovine tissue.

That has ensured Max has, with the exception of check-ups and adjustments, been able to live a near-normal life.

The surgery on Max was so successful he was well enough to perform a stand-up comedy routine at a sell-out, fund-raising concert at his school St Bede’s in Redditch.

In November 2010, Max's brother Ben, who had always been healthy, was rushed to the Birmingham Children's ICU, having contracted a severe streptococcal infection which caused pneumonia and toxic shock.

He was close to death and needed an emergency chest drain to clear his dangerously congested lungs. He has since made a full recovery.

The boys' mum Martina, who runs Bromsgrove's Stage Door Dance Academy, has been a dedicated fund-raiser.

She said: "I was delighted Mr Brawn operated on Max again as all the surgeons there are amazing but he’s particularly impressive and he knew exactly what he’d done first time round when Max was just four-days-old.

"We’re utterly thrilled that, after all the fund-raising, the heart appeal has raised the £2million needed."

She added the extra intensive care beds would help children from all over Britain who came there for treatment.

And she said she was proud to have raised funds for and awareness of the cause.

"Many children are now surviving who‘d have died even a few years ago and the hospital is the future for these children."

Max, meanwhile, is auditioning for the school production of 'The Wizard of Oz’ and for All and Sundry's ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and wants to be a TV comedy actor in the future.

"There are so many problems in the world and worried people, he wants to bring them a bit of happiness,” added Martina.

For more on Birmingham Children’s Hospital, visit http://www.bch.org.uk