Brisbane’s PA Hospital continues to change the lives of Queenslanders from all across the Sunshine State for the better.
Lives like Bundaberg Gardener and father Anthony Pratt’s.
Anthony went to his GP in March of last year after feeling tired and fatigued at work who then sent him to get a series of blood tests done. His doctor rang him the very next day to tell him the concerning news that three key indicators of cancer were high in his blood. He was sent for a CT scan, an ultrasound and an MRI with the CT scan picking up a form of a cholangiocarcinoma also known as bile duct cancer.
“I flew to Brisbane where I was first seen by Dr Nicholas O’Rourke at Royal Brisbane Hospital, he referred me over to the PA Hospital, because he said I had the carcinoma and a few other things wrong with my liver including bile duct syndrome, sorosis of the liver as well as the cancer which was doing the most damage,” Anthony said.
“I was told I’d need a liver transplant, but the cancer would need to be treated first.”
“Dr Peter Hodgkinson was my doctor at the PA, and he said I’d have to have chemo and radiation and some stints put in the bile ducts, so we started a process of doing each of them one after the other.”
Anthony would head back to Bundaberg for a brief time before returning to the PA to have the stints put in his bile ducts, before heading home to recover from the stint surgery before starting five weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatment for his cancer, again at the PA.
 and sons nathan (left) and Jacob..jpg)
Tony Pratt (patient) and sons Nathan (left) and Jacob.
“By the time I went back to Brisbane I was turning yellow and feeling really sick. They put stints in the right side and the left side was a bit harder for them to do. Dr Hodgkinson got the team together from the PA’s gastroenterology department including Professor Gerard Holtman who was really good to me as well and they got the stint in the left side,” Anthony said.
Anthony was able to spend Christmas at home and with his cancer now successfully treated by the PA’s Oncology team, he had another visit with the PA in January to discuss placement on the liver transplant waiting list.
“Once the cancer was all clear I was put on the waiting list. They put me officially on the list in February and four weeks later I had my liver transplant on the 20th of March. I was only on the list for four weeks, which was just great,” he said.
“I was so happy it was like all my birthdays came at once. I was so excited to get it done because I knew I would feel better. I was so sick of feeling sick all the time I couldn’t do much because I had no energy.
“I will never forget the time or the day he called me to say they had a liver ready; it was such an exciting thing to happen in my life. I had the transplant, and it was so good, even the next day I felt better.”
Anthony spent a week under the care of the PA following his surgery but was up and walking within 48 hours.
The 56-year-old and father of Jacob 25 and Nathan 16 and stepfather to Jordan and Jessica is so grateful for the new lease on life the PA has given him he has become a regular donor to the hospital’s charitable arm, the PA Research Foundation.
“The physio came down the next day and said if you can get out of bed, I will get you to stand up and I was keen to do that because I am pretty active person normally before I was sick, and I hate laying in bed too long.
“I got up and did some marching on the spot and the next day I got out of bed, and I was walking up and down the ICU Unit I felt really good. I still feel good now.
“I can live a better healthier life now and spend more time with my kids.
“I am really happy and thankful to all the doctors, especially Peter and his team and the whole liver department.”