He can throw a pretty good tantrum, is learning to share his toys, pesters his older sisters and is quite fond of the word ‘no’.

Dad's run means more than most realise

Only the big zipper-like scar running down the middle of Eli’s ribcage bears witness to the life-threatening trauma of the past three years.

But given the alternative, Shane and Lisa Hack wouldn’t have it any other way.

That’s why the Hack family will join 35,000 other runners in Melbourne tomorrow for the 10th CityLink Run for the Kids fund-raiser to support the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

Almost four years ago the Wangaratta couple was warned it was highly likely their son would be born “blue and floppy”.

An irregularity with his heart had been detected at Lisa’s 20-week scan and the uncertainty increased as the pregnancy progressed.

Extensive testing at Monash Hospital in Melbourne revealed three possible scenarios, with the least likely a condition called ‘Truncus Arteriosus’.

Eli was born by caersarian at 38 weeks and doctors had warned the anxious parents to brace themselves for the worst.

“We really didn’t know if we would be bringing a baby home,” Lisa said.

Shane chokes back tears as he recalls being told it was unlikely he would be able to hold his newborn as a specialist team stood ready to intervene.

“They told us he would be blue and floppy but he came out kicking and screaming,” Shane said.

Eli was monitored for seven days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Monash but despite “myriad small problems” his heart function was stable enough for Lisa and Shane to take him home.

However at his three-month check-up at the Royal Children’s Hospital doctors discovered there was no blood supply to one of Eli’s tiny lungs.

“We were not allowed to go home and we spent three-and-a-half weeks there while Eli had two operations to partially repair the attachment,” Shane said.

Lisa said it was terrifying to hand over her baby for major surgery when the outcome was so uncertain.

“The first time the surgeons went in through Eli’s back but they said to me the delicate dissection of the lungs was unsuccessful,” she said.

“In the second surgery, they took a more experimental approach through the ribcage, which was successful, but it was a rough recovery.”

At just eight months of age Eli had to undergo another major operation to completely “replumb” the arteries attaching the lung to the heart using a valve from the neck of a cow.

That procedure was supposed to last until Eli was about seven or eight years of age.

But in June last year, just a few days short of his third birthday, Eli collapsed in the front yard and had to be airlifted to Melbourne.

There had been no outward sign of his deteriorating heart and his horrified parents again feared the worst.

But once again the team at the Royal Children’s opened up the little boy and performed life-saving surgery to widen the pulmonary artery using a larger valve from a cow.

This time Eli’s recovery was rapid and he was home six days later.

Today, Shane reckons his tearaway toddler is virtually “bulletproof” and says they hope he won’t have to face another operation until his teens.

Both Shane and Lisa agree Eli would not be here today if it wasn’t for the expert team at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

“Eli’s life expectancy without surgery was less than a year,” Lisa said.

“And yes, while he will need a lifetime of medical care his life expectancy is now normal.”