HEART OF THE FAMILY
AUCKLAND MUM CHANTELLE’S WEE DAUGHTER IS A LITTLE BATTLER
Little Kiwi battler Milla
‘ I can tell already that Milla’s very determined and very strong-minded’
Bouncing gleefully before crawling out of her mum’s arms onto the floor, you would never guess that just a month ago, Milla Huston had been on an operating table undergoing her second open-heart surgery.
Like most toddlers, she is alert, inquisitive and will put anything she can get her hands on straight into her mouth. But unlike many babies her age, one-year-old Milla will most likely be facing a heart transplant when she’s older.
Auckland solo mum Chantelle Huston (36) is remarkably calm when she recalls the seemingly normal pregnancy with her third child, which changed when she hit the 32-week mark. “My other two boys were really small as babies, so I had to have lots of growth scans through this pregnancy,” she explains.
“I was having regular scans with Milla and nothing was said at all until one day I had someone different, who told me there was a problem with my baby’s heart.”
After hearing the news no mother wants to hear, Chantelle raced to Auckland City Hospital, where doctors informed her that Milla’s heart had several structural defects, including a poorly developed left ventricle, and her aorta was connected to the wrong side of her heart.
Despite all the medical jargon, Chantelle knew that something was seriously wrong with her precious wee girl.
“It was horrible just waiting to see what was going to happen when she was born. I was induced at 39 weeks for an emergency Caesarean and, once she arrived, she had a procedure immediately.”
Chantelle took Milla home after a week and was given the all-clear by doctors, but knew she’d have to take her back in for her first fully-fledged surgery when she was four months old. Unfortunately, Milla’s health took a nosedive very quickly.
“We’d been home for two days and the district nurse walked in. As soon as she saw Milla, she said, ‘You need to go to hospital straight away. Your baby is sick,’” recalls Chantelle. “She also told me to pack an overnight bag. We got to hospital and that was us for eight weeks!”
Milla had her first open-heart surgery when she was four weeks old, much earlier than doctors had wanted.
“Goodness, it was scary,” tells Chantelle. “She was only four pounds [1.8kg] and too little. They had no option but to operate for seven hours since she was going into heart failure. That night, she started having seizures. They had to reopen her chest and leave her open for a couple of days. She was asleep for five days while they were trying to keep the seizures under control.”
Now able to talk calmly about her daughter’s nightmarish first few weeks, Chantelle admits to being terrified the entire time her daughter was in hospital. However, she had immense support from her parents Andrea and Bill, as well as her sons Harry (5) and Lennox (3), and they’re what helped Chantelle tackle every day – not to mention the Piha community, who have held fundraisers for the family, and came to her aid with school pick-ups and drop-offs with her boys.
“It’s been busy for sure, as a solo mum, but you just have no choice but to keep going,” she admits. “I’ve learned what I’m capable of and what I can get through. I couldn’t have done it without the love of my family.”
As Chantelle watches Harry and Lennox playing very gently with their baby sister, she reveals, “They’ve been amazing and they just love her.
“They understand she has a bad heart. Harry is very sensitive to that and when Lennox saw the big wound on her chest in hospital, he just cried. But they understand she’s very precious.”
Milla will be due for another open-heart surgery when she’s three, then after 10 years, a heart transplant could be on the cards. For now, she has six-weekly hospital visits to make sure her heart is ticking along nicely.
And as fragile as Milla is, Chantelle is hoping her health will improve so she will reach those normal milestones, such as kindergarten and going to school – “although it will be hard to stay too far from her!” she jokes.
“I can tell already that
Milla’s very determined and very strong-minded, so she probably will do what she wants as she gets older,” says Chantelle with a smile. “But that’s good because I’m definitely ready for it to change around. I think we’ve had our fair share of bad luck. It’s been a pretty full-on year.”