Please will you help equip the new operating theatre with lifesaving equipment?

Christian, a young dad, went out for an early morning bike ride, but ended up at The Royal Melbourne Hospital with catastrophic injuries. An unlicensed driver hit him head-on, then drove away.

Two punctured lungs. An irreparable kidney. Spinal fractures. Multiple breaks – ribs, leg, pelvis, shoulder blade and hand. A brain injury.

These are just some of what our surgeons faced that Friday in the Emergency Department.

The first his wife Karen knew of it was a phone call. She rushed to hospital – not knowing if she’d see her husband alive again. Christian’s life hung by a thread. 

This Christmas, we urgently need your help to fit out our new operating theatre to help save more lives.

“For the first 48 hours, we didn’t know if Christian would survive,” says Dr Simon Iles, Intensive Care Physician. “I remember thinking ‘How can we put him back together?’”

Seven times in 12 days, Christian went into an RMH operating theatre. Thanks to the skill of the surgeons, he not only survived – his body was put back together again. After six weeks in hospital, he then went into rehab where he spent four and a half months learning to eat, talk and walk again. 

It’s been a long, hard road, and life will never be the same for Christian, but he knows his recovery began in the operating theatre. He’s just grateful for each day with his family, and watching his young children get excited for another Christmas.

Sadly, an accident like this can happen to anyone, at any time. This Christmas, we’re asking you to give as generously as possible to provide lifesaving equipment, so we can open our new operating theatre.