The Flying Doctor
#124 Hugo Rockstar's remarkable family.
Published: 12 March 2025 at 16:00 Europe/London
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Episode notes
When Louise Taheny's fifth child was born, she immediately knew something was 'different'. It would take three days before baby Hugo was officially diagnosed with Down Syndrome - a syndrome caused by a random error in cell division that results in an extra copy of chromosome 21. That same day, Louise and her husband John would also learn that the top of Hugo's heart had failed to completely form - a discovery that would ultimately mean two years of 'failure to thrive', until their baby boy was old enough to undergo open heart surgery. Today, the young man now known by his friends and family as 'Hugo Rockstar' has faced a myriad of health challenges throughout his childhood and adolescence. But this is also the story of Hugo's incredible family - and the incredible courage and resiliance of his mother Louise, as she faced the added blow of her older son becoming a paraplegic after a serious car accident and later, dealt with the life-changing repercussions of her husband's debilitating stroke.
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