Brave Jack Sundin out of hospital for Christmas

Dec 24 2009 by Helen Rae, The Journal

HIS grin says it all – little Jack Sundin is excitedly waiting to see what presents Father Christmas will bring.

But at the beginning of the year, his family were unsure as to whether the two-and-a-half-year-old would make it to December as he had to undergo life-saving surgery to correct a problem with his spine.

Jack, from Whitley Bay, was born with a series of health complications.

He was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot – a hole in the heart and defective valves – and tracheo-oesophageal fistula, a rare defect where the bottom end of the food pipe is joined to the windpipe.

The youngster also had an extra half-vertebrae which pushed his spine more than 70 degrees out of alignment, causing it to turn back in on itself.

As a result, in August this year Jack underwent a gruelling operation at Newcastle’s Freeman hospital to remove the extra half-vertebra and he was fitted with two metal rods and four pins to help straighten his back.

But despite spending a lot of time in and out of hospital the tot is now home and cannot wait to celebrate Christmas and New Year.

Jack’s parents Lisa, 33, and Alistair, 43, and siblings Hollie Graham-Scott, eight, and James Holmes, 14, are looking forward to putting the past 12 months behind them and focusing on 2010.