Nathalie' s Story

At the age of just three, Nathalie announced to her parents that she wanted to be a cellist. Would this be possible? Since birth Nathalie had suffered from a vascular malformation in her right leg, which was very painful. During the first seven years of her life, the disease led to thromboses roughly every six weeks, accompanied by hospital stays. Although she was receiving care from the best doctors in the University Hospital, no-one knew exactly what to do. Not once was the child given pain-killing or thrombosis-relieving drugs, for fear of doing something wrong.

Nathalie’s parents left no stone unturned in searching for a specialist, and by a stroke of luck, eventually came across Prof. Loose in Hamburg. At eight years of age, Nathalie was operated on by him for the first time, and successfully came through an additional operation at the age of 14. The major and complex surgery was extremely successful. Nathalie was very soon back on her feet. Much changed for her: her dream of becoming a musician was now no longer just a dream. And a new, trouble-free life has also begun for her family, after years of hospital stays and operations. Nathalie is now complaint-free and is attending cello master classes at a well-known university.