Baby Sebastian Atze on the mend after multiple life-saving operations

BABY Sebastian doesn’t know it yet but he is one very lucky little boy.

EASTER APPEAL @ WCH. Tiffany Atze with son Sebastian. He was born xmas eve with CDH (Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia) and has so far had 6 major surgeries. Tricia Watkinson.

BABY Sebastian doesn’t know it yet but he is one very lucky little boy.

The three-month-old will one day be able to tell his mates it was a miracle he survived the six major operations he has endured in his short life so far.

Born on Christmas Eve to parents Tiffany and Mathew Atze, of Pinnaroo, the bub was rushed from Loxton Hospital to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital after doctors realised something was wrong.

At first, the medical staff in Loxton believed Sebastian had a bad lung infection because he was having difficult breathing.

An X-ray confirmed he had a congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

“It meant that he had a hole in his diaphragm and his intestines were up over his left lung," Ms Atze said.

“Doctors said there was a slim chance (of him surviving). The poor medstar team showed up (to transfer him to Adelaide) and knew it was a lot more serious than they thought it was going to be.”

Since then, the placid baby has been too unwell to leave hospital and tomorrow will spend his first Easter at the WCH.

But, after quite the ordeal, brave Sebastian is finally on the mend.

The Atzes are throwing their support behind the hospital’s TeamKids Easter Appeal on Monday. The appeal, supported by The Advertiser, aims to raise $2 million for the hospital.

As soon as Sebastian arrived in Adelaide, he had surgery to move his intestines back into his stomach cavity and patch the hole in his diaphragm to help him breathe.

On New Year’s Day, Sebastian found himself back in the hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit because he had contracted necrotising enterocolitis, a condition where the intestines start dying off.

“He had a perforation in his small intestine and lost a small piece of his intestine (during surgery) and they put a stoma in,” Ms Atze said.

“The doctors did not expect him to survive it from how sick he was ... for the first 48 hours they were waiting for organ failure.”

Sebastian had a further four surgeries — one to reverse the stoma but that was unsuccessful and the stoma needed to be inserted again.

He is still in hospital because he needs to be on total parenteral nutrition, a special machine which pumps vital vitamins, minerals and fats into an artery in his heart.

“Because his stoma is very high in his gut, he doesn’t have enough gut to absorb much of it,” Ms Atze said.

Sebastian will spend another six-to-eight weeks in hospital before he is allowed to go home for the first time.

“Our outcome looks good ... he should lead a fairly normal life,” Ms Atze said.

Originally published as Baby Sebastian Atze on the mend after multiple life-saving operations