Cameron McCallum's escape from death has left him with a strong and inspiring will to live.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
The 16-year-old has been in John Hunter Hospital for more than 475 days.
A GoFundMe page, titled "Cameron's Great Escape From Hospital", aims to get him a second-hand wheelchair-accessible van to enable day trips from the hospital.
His family also needs to extend their Kotara house to bring him home from hospital.
In an interview, Cameron joked that "I've given death the finger nine times".
He said a sense of humour was "a vital part of coping with things".
"It allows me to make the situation lighter on my mind. It lets me make people laugh. It makes me happy when I see others happy."
Cameron thanked the staff at the hospital's Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.
"They're the reason I'm still alive. They tried their hardest and succeeded," he said.
"They kept on trying even when they thought my death was imminent."
His mum Ann McCallum said her son decided in January, after long-running bouts of sepsis, that he wanted to live.
"It gave him something to fight for. He was very depressed."
The sepsis followed chemotherapy treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which he was diagnosed with in July 2022.
Cameron, who turns 17 next month, said his will to live came with the thought that "I've come this far, why stop now".
"And it gives me a story to tell. Mum and dad always say I have a lot of tenacity," he said.
Ann said her son had great mental strength.
"He has put up with a lot more than I think I ever could," she said.
He was discharged from intensive care "three months before they thought he would be".
Nonetheless, she said Cameron "won't be at home for a long time".
"We can't get him in the house. It's not accessible. We've got to extend because it's a 1950s house."
Cameron will need a new bedroom with adequate space for himself, a bed, his powered wheelchair, a hoist and an en suite.
He also needs transport.
"We're in the process of trying to find a van that doesn't take all the budget we have," Ann said.
She also wants to set up a dialysis machine in Cameron's room. He needs dialysis three times a week, as he lives with kidney failure.
A living room area would also be extended, so "we can be there as a family".
"Otherwise the room will be just big enough for him and he'll be stuck on his own," Ann said.
"He's very close to his little brother Nicholas [aged 13], so we need space they can be together in."
Such a space would also allow Cameron's friends to visit.
"He has some good friends," Ann said.
Family friend Emily Harland created the GoFundMe page to raise money for the van.
It would allow day trips from the hospital, while the family seeks government funding to help make their house liveable for Cameron.
"The McCallums would like to thank the community for their ongoing support over the past two years, which has helped keep the family afloat," Emily wrote.
She added that Cameron would "soon be well enough to finally go home, which is awesome".
He currently cannot walk or sit unsupported.
Doctors say he will need a powered wheelchair for several years while he builds muscle strength and learns to walk again.
Ann is caring for her son full-time. She has been on unpaid leave from her job as a nurse since July 2022.
"It's been excessively hard, challenging and heartbreaking," she said.
"We've lived separately for nearly two years. I'm here during the week and my husband Mark is here on the weekend."
She is proud of Cameron's emotional intelligence, especially given he has autism.
"If you walked in the room, he'd say 'Hi, how are you today? Are you having a good day?' That's him," she said.
The gravity of Cameron's condition meant he had to rely on a ventilator to breathe for 390 days.
Chemotherapy treatment caused him severe side effects, including acute necrotizing pancreatitis that led to a bowel perforation.
"He only has about 20 per cent of his pancreas left," Ann said.
An antibiotic-resistant superbug called klebsiella caused him to have "sepsis that rolled on and on".
"He's also lost a large portion of his hearing. And he's in end-stage renal failure, which probably won't get fixed without a kidney transplant."
Cameron is now cancer free.
"He had to have the chemo. He was at a high risk of relapsing. It was either have it, or probably die."
His family is now determined to help improve his life.
