Aged 22 months with a chicken bone stuck in his lung: Starship's first patient

We need you to help us to Help Our Kids. The Herald is running a major campaign to try and raise at least $150,000 for our national children’s hospital, Starship. Each year, more than 9000 Kiwi kids from right throughout the country are treated in Starship’s theatres. Now it’s our turn to help the hospital and staff that Help Our Kids.

MAKE A DONATION HERE FAQ: WHAT IS HELP OUR KIDS?

Stéphane Cornille was one of the first patients to be operated on at Starship.

In 1991 the 22-month-old boy was eating chicken, rice and vegetables with his twin sister when he stopped breathing.

His mother, Véronique, saw his face and neck turn red. "I quickly pulled him out of his highchair, turned him over and hit him four times between the shoulder blades," she said.

"I was about to put him down, assuming he had started breathing again, but he hadn't. I continued and on the second attempt he brought up rice and started to breathe again."

Stéphane coughed for an hour. A doctor in Waiuku found his left lung wasn't working and sent them to then seven-day-old Starship hospital, which was then still being referred to as "the new Princess Mary Hospital", after the facility it replaced.

Stéphane was admitted to ward 24B on its first day in use and it was "beautiful, stunning, a fairy castle", says Miss Cornille. "Everything was in honour of children."

An x-ray showed a foreign body in his lung.

Stéphane was scheduled to be the last patient operated on in the old hospital, but by next morning this had changed to his being "the first to be operated on in the new hospital".

"I took my little boy down to the theatre doors for his 2pm surgery. It was gut-wrenching having to hand my little boy over at the doors. Two small pieces of chicken were removed from his left lung and lots of pus. He was a new boy, even coming out of anaesthetic."

SHARE YOUR STARSHIP STORY: CLICK TO EMAIL THE HERALD

Starship ear, nose and throat surgeon Colin Barber says the procedure would have been done in a similar way to current practice, reaching down into the youngster's left main bronchus (airway entering the lung) with surgical instruments.

The two main instruments - a narrow, rigid bronchoscope and a thin pair of forceps to grasp the foreign object - were previously separate, but the forceps are now inside the bronchoscope. In 1991, the surgeon would have looked through the eye-piece of the bronchoscope, a type of telescope, to find the chicken. But with the help of the Starship Foundation, the hospital has modern bronchoscopes that are connected to a video camera and the image is displayed on a screen.

Stéphane Cornille was one of the first patients to be operated on at Starship. He was at the hospital's 21st birthday celebrations with veteran nurse Elizabeth (aka Tizzle) Hunter.

Dr Barber says the pus would have formed in Stéphane's lung because of irritation caused by the chicken. "The lungs don't like being blocked off."

Stéphane, now a 24-year-old associate product manager for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, suffered no lasting problems from the choking incident.

He and his mother remain in contact with Starship. Both have served there as volunteers and Miss Cornille still does.

She says that as a high school student in Nelson, Stéphane fought publicly to retain the Starship's name when the Auckland District Health Board tried to drop it.

"As a family we felt very strongly that children should have a say in matters affecting their own hospital."

MAKE AN ONLINE DONATION HERE

Or make an offline donation by printing off and filling out the form below: