‘WE’RE SO PROUD OF OUR LITTLE FIGHTER’
These first-time parents were reeling after discovering their girl needed a new heart
With smiles that would light up any room as they cuddle their beautiful daughter Aru, it’s hard to imagine the harrowing journey Smital and Kiran Patel have experienced since becoming parents.
When Aru was just six months, Smital took her to the hospital after she started breathing rapidly.
Doctors initially suspected pneumonia, but a chest X-ray found something even more frightening. Aru’s left lung had collapsed and her tiny heart was only functioning at eight per cent capacity.
“When they told me she needed a heart transplant, that it wasn’t pumping blood to her organs, I just went numb,” says Smital, 30, who together with Kiran spent the next six months living at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne while waiting for a heart transplant for their only child.
It was during that nerveracking time they found the Starlight Children’s Foundation. A visit from Captain Starlight left Aru beaming. “When you see your child singing and dancing, it’s a stress-buster for you as a parent, too,” says Smital.
Just one month before her first birthday, Aru underwent life-saving transplant surgery, but was left needing regular specialist care after she developed a food aversion and needed to be tube-fed.
Three years on, and countless frightening surgeries, brave Aru is still all smiles.
“She’s such a fighter,” says Smital. “Any time Kiran and
I feel defeated, we look at her and think, if she can fight, we can, too.”
To donate to the Starlight Children’s Foundation visit starlight.org.au/tax