Dustin Cole-Putland’s Starlight Wish postponed after skull dissolves

Seven-year-old Dustin Cole-Putland’s dream holiday was postponed after his skull began to dissolve.

Seven-year-old Dustin Cole-Putland’s dream holiday was postponed after his skull began to dissolve. Picture Kelly Barnes

Nearly two years after suffering a devastating brain bleed, Dustin Cole-Putland, 7, was recovering and looking forward to having his Starlight Wish of a holiday to Gold Coast theme parks fulfilled in March.

But now he faces multiple brain surgeries after his skull began to dissolve.

After suffering a brain bleed in April 2023, doctors eventually managed to fuse part of Dustin’s skull back together — but after 10 months Dustin’s mum noticed a “soft spot” and brought her son straight to the hospital.

Dustin Cole-Putland is in hospital fighting an infection before he has a titanium piece fused to his skull again. Picture: Supplied by family

Dustin and his Mum Tina Cole. Picture Kelly Barnes

“I was feeling along the scar and I found a soft spot as big as my finger on the back of his head,” Tina Cole, of Aldinga Beach, told The Advertiser.

“(Doctors said) it would naturally re-fuse like any broken bone, but over the space of 10 months it didn’t develop enough blood flow through the whole piece, and it started to dissolve instead.”

In an attempt to resolve Dustin’s dissolving skull, doctors at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital fused a titanium plate to his brain last November. But, following the surgery, he suffered an infection.

“He got a little wound on his head … we were (soon) back in the hospital,” Ms Cole, who is a single mum, said.

Doctors were forced to remove the plate while they treated the infection, and Dustin is now back at the WCH with a helmet protecting his brain.

“It’s going to be six to eight weeks before they can put the plate back in,” Ms Cole said.

Image of Dustin when he was six-year-old after doctors originally discovered the brain bleed, with his mum. Picture Kelly Barnes

Not only is Dustin having to wait for another surgery to have a titanium plate placed back into his skull – but he must wait another two weeks after that to finally be able to fulfil his Starlight Wish to travel to Queensland, likely now postponed to August.

“Starlight were putting us in the Paradise Resort and sending us to Sea World, Wet‘n’Wild and Movie World, all things he’s never done before, and I’ve never done before,” Ms Cole said.

Watching her son go through multiple brain surgeries has been difficult for Ms Cole. Her mum, Annette, has been helping with her eldest daughter Alexis, 11.

“You don’t have a choice, you just deal with it as it comes,” she said. “(It) makes you worry about what’s coming up next, just very stressful.”

Ms Cole was driving to Millicent in April 2023 when Dustin began screaming in pain.

Her daughter called an ambulance which took Dustin to Mt Barker Hospital before MedSTAR transferred him to the WCH. It was there doctors discovered the brain bleed.