A special party is being held in Lismore tonight which will go some way towards helping save the life of the birthday girl.
As Paige Humphreys celebrates turning 10-years-old, friends and family will be gathering at the Lismore Workers Club for a fundraising concert.
Paige needs live-saving surgery in America to deal with a blockage in the vein between her digestive organs and her liver.
The blockage came about as a result of a staph infection she picked up as a baby. As she grew, she barely slept and spent hours screaming in pain. Over the next few years, Paige endured rigorous testing in an attempt to determine what was wrong.
In 2011, Paige woke in her bed, and suddenly began vomiting up litres of dark red blood.
She was flown interstate where she lost still more blood and underwent repeated emergency surgeries.
Her doctors reviewed the CT scan taken when she was a baby and discovered that the staph infection in Paige’s belly button as a newborn had resulted in a blockage between her digestive organs and her liver, a condition known as severe portal hypertension.
The incredibly rare condition can cause internal and external bleeding. It impedes the function of her major organs including her liver, spleen, digestive system and sometimes her lungs and brain.
She lives daily with the threat of rupturing an organ.
After researching the condition, her father Andrew discovered that an American surgeon, Doctor Superina (aka “Dr Superman”) is the world’s best intravascular liver surgeon and offers 90 per cent odds of a cure. Due to the incredibly rare nature of Paige’s condition, Australian surgeons can only offer a 50-60 per cent chance of success.
The cost of the surgery is U.S $175000 (AU $235,000) all costs inclusive, and medically-assisted travel is estimated at AU $20,000.
So far, fundraising efforts have raised almost $89,000 towards the surgery.
And tonight, from 6pm at the Lismore Workers Club, those efforts will continue, with a number of local bands lining up for a concert to raise raise the funds needed for Paige to meet ‘Dr Superman’.
For anyone unable to make the concert, donations can be made at https://chuffed.org/project/saving-paige-humphreys#/supporters
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