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Elias's Story
We have a bleeder!
In late 2015, our son Elias was diagnosed with Haemophilia, a rare and genetic bleeding disorder. Elias was eight months at the time. He had a minor cut to his finger that wouldn’t stop bleeding over several days, so we took him into the hospital for testing. It really came as a shock to our family, but we have been able to manage his condition thanks to the best treatment and medical care we could ask for, as well as the support of the Haemophilia Foundation that helps thousands of families around Australia.
Haemophilia affects 1 in 6000 males and currently in Australia there are about 5800 people with varied degrees of severity. Bleeding is most commonly internal into the joints and/or muscles. It can happen without an obvious cause (sometimes called ‘spontaneous’), or as a result of injury. Elias has Haemophilia A, the most common type that occurs when there is not enough clotting factor VIII in the blood.
If Elias has a cut or bruise, it doesn’t stop bleeding without intervention. We take him to the Haemophilia Clinic at Westmead Children’s Hospital to receive treatment that allows his blood to clot normally. It can be challenging, especially since he’s a very active little boy, but we know he’ll have a happy and normal life just like any other kid. We just work around it.