Giles and Cher
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Giles is a First Nations transgender teenager living with physical and psychosocial disability. He has had chronic pain and undiagnosed conditions all his life.
At the age of two, doctors treated Giles for arthritis. ‘They put him in a wheelchair and said he'd never walk again,’ said his grandmother Cher.
As a child Giles spent three months in hospital where, Cher said, he was treated like ‘a guinea pig’ and ‘forcefully treated with physiotherapy’ for his joint pain.
‘It's caused more pain. It's so rough,’ Giles said. ‘When I got out of the wheelchair into crutches, they put me in the psych ward because they thought that it was in my head.’
Giles thinks medical professionals discriminate against him because he’s Indigenous.
‘Well I know there were lots of doctors that didn't really believe me.’
Two years ago, Giles went to see a paediatrician because his chest and stomach were hurting to the point he would cry.
‘They said that they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. They didn't even try and do anything. So they put me on a heap of pills and I was taking 13 tablets a day.’
Cher said the meeting at the hospital afterwards was ‘appalling’.
‘They turn around and they said, “How do you feel about [Giles] going back into the psych unit?” And I kept telling them the pain is not in his head. Like, I showed them photos of his legs – his kneecaps being swollen. I got into trouble and they threatened to dob me in to child safety for taking photos of my child's naked leg.’
Another doctor made Giles wait two hours to see him, then gave him opioids for pain.
‘Sees him for about 15 minutes. He gets a lollipop and leaves,’ said Cher. ‘And we kept saying to him over and over what was going on? He couldn’t give us a solution except for Oxycodone.’
Giles went to a specialist interstate who diagnosed him with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. His pain is getting worse and without proper treatment overseas he may soon need knee replacements, said Cher.
‘We've been told that we've been treated like a third-world country. If we’d found a doctor that cared enough over here or believed us, they can't fix him but they could ease the pain and help him manage.’
Recently, one specialist kept promising to line up appointments for Giles.
‘It didn't happen. It was bullshit. It was just to get rid of us. I don't understand. He must’ve had his licence from a Weet-Bix packet,’ said Cher.
Giles has mobility problems.
‘I’m losing my balance. I fell over twice the other day at school and I had my knees dislocated. I’ve been really weak,’ he said.
He can no longer do activities he loves, like horse riding.
‘The most I can do is go to school and go back home and sleep.’
He just hopes doctors will start believing him ‘and actually try and do something’.
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.