TEENAGER’S INSPIRING STORY
JAI Barber has lofty ambitions. He is 14 and wants to become a pediatric neurosurgeon – despite a severe brain condition. A Kurwongbah teenager, who has survived 18 brain operations, has set his sights on becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon.
Jai Barber, 14, has been in and out of hospital all his life with a condition called hydrocephalus, which is a dangerous build-up of fluid around the brain.
But that has not stopped him chasing sporting and career goals – and becoming a finalist in the Pride of Australia Child of Courage Awards.
Hydrocephalus affects one in 500 newborns making it more common than Down syndrome.
Jai wears a shunt tube from his brain to abdomen cavity and needs four supplementary feeds a day through a gastrostomy button. Despite this, Mrs Barber said: “He has the most amazing outlook. Whatever he sets his mind to, he is focused.”
A typical teen, he even contradicts Mum about brain operations –- Jai says it is 19, not 18.
Jai is in Year 10 at the Queensland Academy of Health Science and took part in the 2013 Kokoda (Trail) Challenge for Legacy. He is a fundraiser for global aid and the development charity Oaktree Foundation.
He is also on the verge of a black belt in tae kwon do, is an advocate for his latest pet project, a national shunt register.
This would help neurosurgeons track information on shunts and which types work for longest to reduce costs of shunt revision surgeries and the risks to patients, Mrs Barber said.
Pride of Australia category winners will be named at the Customs House, Brisbane on September 30. Winners will go on to the People’s Choice Medal, with voting from October 6-28.
As printed in the Pine Rivers Press, Thursday 19 September 2013
