Lauren tackles fur, feathers and scales

A TEENAGER’S love of animals, particularly those with scales, is helping her get through the tough times she faces with a rare illness called Job’s Syndrome.

Lauren Rogers, 16, from Kinsealy, Co Dublin, is the only person diagnosed with the condition in Ireland which is characterised by recurrent staphylococcal infection of the skin and lungs.

Lauren loves looking after her menagerie, particularly the sick lizards that she has rescued and was delighted when Share a Dream arranged for her to spend a day working in a veterinary hospital.

She spent yesterday with well-known veterinary surgeon, Bairbre O’Malley at her busy veterinary hospital in Bray, Co Wicklow.

“We have just finished neutering a rabbit and were wrestling earlier in the day with a python that had pneumonia,” said Ms O’Malley, who spent five years as resident vet on the hit BBC series Animal Hospital.

“Lauren came on a good day because we are very busy — we have fur, feathers and scales here today. She is very hands on and not at all squeamish,” she said.

Lauren said she had 11 lizards and was soon to acquire another one born with a bent spine.

She also has a cat, a dwarf rabbit, two tortoises, two guinea pigs, two gerbils and two snakes.

And working in the veterinary hospital has also concentrated her mind on her future career. “I want to be a veterinary nurse or a zoologist,” she said.

Her mum, Edith, contacted Share a Dream to ask if they make her daughter’s dream of working in a veterinary clinic come true.

“Two years ago, Lauren became very ill and was in a coma for two weeks.

“Her lungs haemorrhaged, her kidneys failed and she was given a 30% chance of survival,” said Ms Rogers.

Lauren was flown to a hospital in Sweden where she was given extra-corporal membrane oxygenation, a technique that provides both cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are severely diseased.

The teenager receives immunoglobin transfusions every week and intravenous antibiotics every 10-12 weeks.

“Lauren is doing very well but I have to keep a constant eye on her,” said Ms Rogers.

After returning from Sweden Lauren spent six months in Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin.

“We promised to get her a Hermann’s tortoise when she came home and it was the one thing that kept her going,” said Ms Rogers.

“Lauren spends most of her time in Kinsealy Pet Store — it is almost her second home now and they have been very good to her.”