Volunteers come together to give James Sade a new start
After a tough start to life, complex reconstructive surgery in Melbourne has given teenager James Sade hope for a better future.
Victoria
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It has taken a village and some dedicated doctors and nurses to bring James Sade to Melbourne for a life-changing surgery on his facial deformities.
Born with severe health complications, the shy teen has had a tough start to life.
James, 16, has always had his family at his side but can now add to his team a new group of friends in the shape of some special Victorian volunteers.
His journey to their care has been five years in the making, but it is thanks to them that James is now preparing to return home not only with renewed confidence, but a better future.
Home is a remote village in the Solomon Islands, so isolated that just getting to the nearest town with access to communications is a two-day journey by dirt road and boat. There is no running water or electricity and no easy access to healthcare.
His family, that includes six siblings, say when he was younger James liked to meet people, but as the talented singer grew older he was bullied about his appearance and gradually withdrew from the outside world.
James was born with a cleft palate and complex bilateral cleft lips which extended to his cheeks causing deficiency of his lower eyelids. The cleft was so severe it caused a hole in the roof of his mouth that impacted his ability to eat and drink.
Not being able to close his eyelids eventually caused him to go blind.
A cleft palate is an opening or split in the roof of the mouth and a facial cleft is a split in the face or lip that happens when the tissue doesn’t fuse together during development in the womb.
In July James underwent complex and life-changing reconstructive surgery in Melbourne.
Plastic surgeon James Leong worked with the Children First Foundation to help make it happen.
Children First is a Melbourne-based not-for-profit that helps to bring children with operable conditions who cannot be treated in their home countries to hospitals across Australia. It receives no government funding and is funded through individual donors, corporations, trusts and foundations.
Professor Leong said that helping children like James was the right thing to do. “In Australia we have the ability and the resources to help,” he says.
Of the surgery he says it was six hours that came from the kindness of people trying to help someone dealt with harshly by nature.
“It was sad for us to see him like this,” Professor Leong said.
“There’s such a willingness of nurses, theatre technicians, anesthetists and plastic surgical colleagues wanting to just be able to contribute,” Professor Leong said.
“I don’t know what it is, it might be human nature, you know, to have this inner need to be able to give back to society and to help someone who is in need.”
The team did the surgery on a Sunday at Mulgrave Private Hospital.
Despite the early start Professor Leong was surround by a team of a dozen colleagues that included anesthetic nurses, scrub nurses, theatre technicians, anesthetists and a further three surgeons who had all donated their time.
He praised the generosity of Mulgrave Private Hospital. The hospital doesn’t do elective surgeries on a Sunday, but on this day it provided surgical services and ICU care for James.
Hospital CEO Maree Wilson said when approached by Professor Leong to assist, the team was excited to be able to volunteer to help make a difference to James’ future outlook and appearance.
“We entered our professions as we wanted to care for people in their times of need and this is a great example of being able to contribute to enhancing a young man’s life,” she said.
Professor Leong said one of the most difficult things when doing humanitarian work in Australia was finding a hospital who would offer its facilities pro-bono.
“The staff are fantastic, they give their time and come in at their own cost, but we can’t do this work without a theatre and a ward, and at times an intensive care unit,” he said.
Lillian Sade has been at her brother’s side since they arrived in Melbourne for the surgery. Children First has been working with Ronald McDonald House Charities Victoria and Tasmania to provide supportive family-friendly accommodation for the pair until James has fully recovered.
“James is very excited and happy to have the surgery, it has been a long journey,” Lillian Sade said.
She was also able to Facetime their mother Annie at home so she could send her love.
On the day of surgery Lillian was holding her brother’s hand tightly, whispering words of encouragement.
She became emotional when he was wheeled into theatre. Mum of three Nicole Vicic was quick to wrap a reassuring arm around her shoulders.
“We are all here to take good care of him,” she says.
Ms Vicic is an anesthetic nurse who says she always wanted to do volunteer work overseas.
“I have three children and I am very grateful they are all healthy,” she said. “All kids deserve a good start in life and the chance to be able to care for James here in Australia is something I feel very privileged to be able to do.”
Chris Taylor is a volunteer who first met James when he was four.
She vividly remembers the journey a dozen years ago to access his remote village.
“From the capital Honiara you have to take a boat to his island which takes up to four hours,” she said. “Then it’s an eight-hour 4WD truck ride on a terrible track that’s often impassible to reach his village.”
She said James then was chatty and confident and happily playing with other children.
“At that age the other children didn’t care what he looked like,” Ms Taylor said.
That had changed by her next visit in 2017 when James was no longer going to school and spent most of his time at home.
“Children were frightened of him because of how he looked,” Ms Taylor said. “He was teased a lot.
“Once he got older, he became aware of people staring at him. I think he’s lost a lot of confidence because of this. The last time I saw him he was very quiet and shy. He put his hand very gently on my shoulder when we were sitting next to each other. This is a big thing – males don’t do that to women in the Solomon Islands. I felt really honored.”
In 2019 Ms Taylor approached the Children First Foundation to help bring James to Australia for surgery.
The pandemic and delays in getting travel documents meant it took five years, but his family say it was worth the wait as the surgery is now complete and James is thriving.
“He’s been up and about running around,” Professor Leong said. “He’s very good.”
Professor Leong said the surgery had successfully repaired the lip deformity and cleft on the left and right side of James’ face.
“Unfortunately, because he didn’t get surgery on his lower eyelids when he was a baby, we couldn’t save his sight, so James is blind,” Professor Leong said.
As for James, he says he is happy to be heading home to family and back to singing and playing piano in church.
“His life will be very different,” Professor Leong said.
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