First there’s a twinkle in her eye. It spreads to a beaming smile and ends up as a burst of triumphant giggles. Davina Knight’s laugh is infectious and a joy to hear.
But until recently, Davina lived with the horrible fear that laughing could kill her. In fact, if it weren’t for a world-first operation Davina could have literally died laughing.
Sitting in her Sydney apartment, the 26-year-old nurse explains how a brittle bone disease with rare complications threatened her life.
“Since I was diagnosed with brittle bones at 10 days old, I had become used to living with fractures,” says Davina. “By 2003 I had fractured or broken my bones more than 300 times.”
Despite her disability, Davina did well at school and went on to university to study nursing. But she suffered further setbacks.
“I started to get headaches. During one of my check-ups, while I was still at school, I was told the headaches were a dangerous side-effect of my condition.
“The doctor said if the headaches got worse it would mean my spine was pushing up into my skull and I would need a major operation. He warned me that something as simple as a sneeze or a laugh could set off a headache.
“I remember his words so clearly: ‘No giggling for you young lady’. From then on I tried not to laugh. I stopped going out with friends and refused to watch films or TV programs that might be funny. Imagine never letting yourself feel happiness because it could kill you.
“I didn’t laugh for more than 10 years,” Davina continues. “Then one day I was walking our little dog, Chloe, when I burst out laughing watching her chase her tail. “Suddenly pain ripped through my head and I blacked out.”
Davina staggered home and told her mum Jennifer, 54, that she had passed out from laughing — just as her doctor had predicted.
“How can I ever be happy if I can’t laugh?” Davina wept. “Mum, there must be something the doctors can do to help me laugh again.”
A top neurosurgeon at Westmead Private Hospital, in Sydney’s west, gave Davina some devastating news. He told her that her brain stem was sinking into her spinal cord and she needed an operation or she could die…
For the full story, see this week’s issue of Woman’s Day (on-sale May 14).
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