Miracle mum Talisha shares Eliana's story:

 Our little miracle was born at 30+1 weeks after I went to the hospital with concerns of reduced movement. As a first-time mum, I thought I was overreacting but after an abnormal CTG and two hospital transfers on the same day, I knew this was not the case. I had multiple ultrasounds which showed extra fluid in Eliana’s abdomen which the doctors were not even sure what it was. One doctor in particular told me he had seen this one other time in his whole 20+ years of working and it was due to a twisted bowel, so this is what he suspected. 3 hours later Eliana went into distress, and I was rushed off for an emergency caesarean. Eliana defied all odds and came out breathing on her own and even crying! She needed little bits of breathing support and was rushed off to NICU where they did an ultrasound on her to get a better picture of what was going on. Eliana was then taken off for emergency surgery which we were told she may not make it out alive, so we had to say our goodbyes when we barely got to say hello. This was the hardest moment of my life! But yet again, she defied all odds and made it through surgery and within 3 days was off all breathing support and we were amazed. Within a week she had her stoma reversal surgery for her bowel. Not long after this, she had an ultrasound on her bowel and they also found another complication she was born without a gallbladder. This then meant lots more testing for Eliana as this meant she could have a rare chronic liver disease. Weeks went by, we established breastfeeding, and she seemed great, but she was not putting on weight as she should have been due to liver disease. We had a hospital transfer closer to home which was the Mater hospital in Brisbane. We spent weeks in NICU doing MRIs and poo tests, blood tests etc. lots of chats to specialists before finally being told at 37 weeks gestation that Eliana was going to have to have a major surgery called the “Kasai procedure” to help her liver survive. The chances of this surgery working were 50/50 which was a scary thought, but it had to be done.
This surgery was massive, and she took a lot longer to recover this time round, but again, she did it! Our little fighter. We were then working on exclusively breastfeeding so we could go home.

We were grateful all went amazing, she went home on her due date and although we have had lots of hospital admissions since, due to her low immune system in her first year of life, she is now nearly two and thriving! We are so blessed and grateful for all the support we had during our NICU/SCU stay. 69 days and full support the whole way through with food, accommodation and lots of emotional support by the miracle babies’ workers/volunteers. I could not have gotten through it without you guys. Thank you!