Malvern parents’ plea to help baby Liané

EVER since the emergency C-section in April when Liané Weidlich made her first appearance in the world, she has been fighting the odds.

Born almost two months earlier than expected at only 33 weeks gestation, the little girl faced life outside the safety of her mother’s body with underdeveloped lungs which meant she spent almost a week on a ventilator rather than nestled in her mother’s arms.

Despite this early intervention, she still ended up with a collapsed lung, but she is a fighter and coped with being put on the oxygen prongs for a few days until she was able to breathe on her own.

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But the early successes didn’t last. According to her mum, shortly after being transferred to Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) where a child is kept in close proximity to their mother receiving skin-on-skin care, her vital signs crashed.

“She needed a blood transfusion and it took 17 hours to get blood,” said her mother, Uandi.

Soon Liané’s parents became experts in medical terminology.

“Liané was born with two holes in the heart, both PDA (patent ductus arteriosus) and VSD (ventricular septum defects).

“They have also seen that she has multiple tiny bleeds on the brain when they did the CT scan after her birth when she struggled to suck,” said Uandi.

While the earliest MRI that could be scheduled is only in December, little Liané had to be readmitted back into hospital in the second week of July after she started having seizures to the point where she was unresponsive and had stopped breathing.

“We rushed her to hospital last night,” said her parents on Friday, 12 July. Medical treatment saw her stabilised for a few hours, but by Friday morning the little baby had begun having seizures again, which continued throughout the day.

“Unfortunately we don’t have medical aid, so the hospital does not want to send her for a CT scan (type of x-ray) or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body),” said Uandi from beside her hospital bed.

“We are wanting to raise funds to get her into a private hospital to speed things up to see what is wrong with my little girl; it scares me to death seeing this and as a mother, I only want what is best for my little Lia.”

Crowd-funding campaign set up
Speaking to the Queensburgh News last week Uandi shared how little she had anticipated the struggles she was going to have to face with her newborn daughter.

“With all her complications at birth, I could never have thought she will start having fits. I was under the impression that the MRI was just a check-up to diagnose strategy,” she said.

“When she had her first seizure in my husband arms, going limp and unconscious and not responding to my voice or touch, I cannot explain the fear I was faced with,” said Uandi who said the worst was just simply not knowing if her daughter would ever wake-up again.

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However, the arrival at the hospital didn’t give her much in the way of comfort either. “Getting to the hospital and being told she needs numerous tests and they do not know the extent of damage was devastating,” said the Uandi who already had one child who is on treatment for seizures due to his cerebral palsy.

While Uandi is grateful for the care her daughter is getting at the state hospital, she can’t but help wish for more.

“The staff are very laid back and I supposed they feel they are doing the best possible but I feel more can be done,” she said.

“While I understand having the MRI will not make a big change in the condition of my child, I do feel it will give needed answers. At least we will know the extent of any damage we are dealing with and we will be able to work on a way forward. The unknown is really taking its toll on us as a family.”

“Having a sick baby is definitely life-changing, not knowing when the next fit is going to be, the extent of it and whether she will be okay in the long run is nerve-racking. Having to get into a routine of giving meds on time and making sure she is okay at all times has taken its toll,” explained the exhausted mother.

The family and their friends have started a crowd-funding campaign (Help baby Liané) to raise money to help little Lia get the medical care she needs.

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