A teenager run over at Quaama last week has had to undergo several operations including having one of his feet amputated.
The 14-year-old Narooma High student is still battling against numerous injuries in intensive care after being airlifted to Sydney Children’s Hospital in a critical condition.
His primary school learning support officer and family friend Donna Jones has appealed to the community to support a GoFundMe campaign she has started for Luke and his family.
“Luke’s a little soldier as far as I’m concerned. He’s, he’s, he’s not great but he seems to be fighting every battle that’s been put in front of him so far,” Ms Jones said.
“He’s still very much in need of intensive care and he is, in fact, still in ICU. It appears from what I’ve been told that he is fighting this with everything that he’s got. I just, I really hope you can keep going,” she said.
Donna taught Luke all through primary school at Bermagui.
“I met Luke when he first started kindergarten and I became his school learning support officer,” she said.
“Luke was a very difficult child to look after. He was non-verbal. He displayed lots and lots of challenging behaviours but I managed to be able to look after him and teach him all the way through to year 6 till he transitioned into high school.”
Donna has increased the fundraising target now up to $20,000 after getting a call from Luke’s mum to update her on his condition.
“Well. Luke’s had to have multiple operations. I spoke to Luke’s mum, who phoned to let me know that Luke was going into surgery to have his foot amputated. In my view that changes everything, a great deal, because there’s going to be a lot more medical intervention, and there’s going to be a lot of environmental intervention that’s going to be needed, just things that will help Luke to live daily is going to be needed. So yeah, I really need some support here,” Donna said.
“The entire family is up there by his side, mum, dad and brother. They’re staying at Ronald MacDonald House,” she said.
“I’m just really aware that, you know, these things cost a lot, a lot of money. Being away from home doesn’t mean that the bills don’t have to be paid. His mum’s not able to work at the moment, obviously so, yeah, there’s a real financial burden there.
“Given the fact that they’re going through such an emotional turmoil at the moment. I just think that if we can alleviate some of the financial strain. That might just ease a little bit.
“I’ve never done this before. I didn’t know Initially when I started it. What we were looking at but now I realise that an ant on a mountain hill. We need more. we need a lot more.
There’s been a lot of the local community who have donated already, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart, but I’m just gonna ask, dig deep, dig really deep please. This family need our help.”
